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4 • 


THE GRAY WHALE 
■ WARSHIP 



Submarine Chums Series 

BY SHERWOOD DOWUNG 

The Cruise of the Gray Whale 
The Gray Whale — Warship 
The Gray Whale — Flagship 

‘Price 50 cenU net each 

D. APPLETON & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS A NEW YORK 





“ She slipped from her hold as he got to her.” 

[Page 185] 









SUBMARINE CHUMS 


THE GRAY WHALE 
WARSHIP 


BY 

SHERWOOD DOWLING 

ADTHOR OF "THE CRUISE OF THE GRAY WBAIe” 



FRONTISPIECE 


NEW YORK AND LONDON 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
1914 


T>'Z-T 


COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



/ ) (^2^1 3 

Printed in the United States of America 


SEP 23 1914 

/ 

©GI.A380496 K-' 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Threats of War i 

II. The Enemy Shows Its Teeth 17 

III. Showing Danny 36 

IV. A Declaration of War 53 

V. The Little Giant 67 ^ 

VI. The Watcher at the Inlet 83 

VII. Finding the Little Giant 103 

VIII. A Night Attack 124 

IX. The Battle of Shelter Cove 141 

X. What the Camera Showed 161 

XI. The Rescue 173 

XII. The Fleet Organizes 191 


% 


THE GRAY WHALE — 
WARSHIP 


CHAPTER I 
THREATS OF WAR 

M r. HINKELSTEDT, the old boat 
builder of Little Giant Creek, stood 
on the float of his boathouse and 
surveyed three anxious boys. 

“You see what I have done?” he asked. 
“Yes, sir,” answered Bob Drake, the leader 
of the group. 

“I have made fast a rope to the Gray 
Whale. You saw that, Harry?” 

“Yes, sir,” answered Harry King. 

“The other end of the rope is here on the 
float. You pull on that rope, and up from 
the water comes your submarine boat. You 
understand that. Perry?” 


I 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“Yes, sir,” Edward Perry answered impa- 
tiently. Why couldn’t Mr. Hinkelstedt 
hurry and get their boat out? 

“Always I like to have peoples under- 
stand,” the boat builder explained. “I am 
a careful man. Now I go by the end of the 
float to watch, and when I say ‘Pull’ you 
pulls, and when I say ‘Stop’ you stops. Every- 
body understands?” 

Three heads nodded. 

“But how are we going to get the Gray 
Whale up with that crowd out there?” Bob 
Drake demanded. 

Five flat-bottomed punts were squirming 
about on Little Giant Creek. They almost 
surrounded the strange-looking craft to which 
Mr. Hinkelstedt had fastened the rope. One 
of the punts, sculled by a red-haired, frec- 
kle-faced lad of fifteen, edged so close that 
it scraped the side. 

“You go ’way from there, you Danny 
Dugan,” shouted the old boat builder. 


THREATS OF WAR 


The punt drifted off. Mr. Hinkelstedt 
went down to the end of his float. 

“Get back!” he roared. “How can I get 
a submarine boat out when you row over her 
deck?” 

The other four punts retreated. 

“Now just you stay there,” the exasperated 
builder ordered. 

He stared over at where the Gray Whale 
bobbed with the tide. Her nose was pointed 
upstream, but she would swing around as she 
came in. To make sure, though, he took a 
long oar and prepared to, guide her. 

“Pull!” he shouted. 

The three boys drew in the rope hand over 
hand. The bow of the Gray Whale appeared 
above the float edge. 

“Stop!” cried Mr. Hinkelstedt. 

The punts had crept too close again. The 
boat builder slapped his oar into the water 
and drove them back. 

“What’s the matter with you, Danny Du- 


3 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


gan?” he raged. “Next thing I know you 
will be inside her pulling out her machinery.” 

Danny Dugan grinned. “All right, Mr. 
Hinkelstedt. I’ll keep away. Start her 
going.” 

Danny kept his promise, but it was hard 
work. As soon as the Gray Whale was on 
the float, the old man jammed blocks of wood 
under her. When he finished she was se- 
curely braced. 

“There she^,” he said proudly. “Not 
even some paint scraped off. I am a careful 
man.” 

Danny Dugan’s boat ran alongside the float, 
and that young man promptly scrambled 
aboard. Other boats came in, and other boys 
joined Danny. So ten or twelve of them were 
lined up a few inches from the submarine. 

Never had they seen anything like her. 
Built like a rough, botched cigar, she was 
sixteen feet long, eight feet deep and three 
feet wide. Danny found the holes through 


4 


THREATS OF WAR 


which the water entered her tank and sank 
her. He marveled at the ventilator pipes, 
and he soon discovered the forward and aft 
lookouts. He kept murmuring that she was 
a beauty, and he kept drawing closer and 
closer to her side. 

Harry King watched him apprehensively. 
“Don’t go monkeying with her, Danny!” 

“Huh!” grunted Danny. “Think I never 
saw a boat before?” 

“Not that kind,” said Harry proudly. 

The other boys from the punts followed 
Danny. He found the propeller and the 
rudder. 

“Look at that, will you?” he demanded. 

They looked with eyes as big as tea plates. 
Then a chorus of questions broke out. 

“How does she go, Danny?” 

“How is she steered?” 

“How do they turn that propeller?” 

“I don’t know — yet,” said Danny. Plainly 
he was the leader of these village lads, and 
5 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


plainly he intended to know all that he could 
about the Gray Whale. 

Bob and Perry and Mr. Hinkelstedt were 
eagerly inspecting the seams of the craft. 
They paid no attention to the visitors. But 
Harry’s eyes never once left Danny. He was 
afraid that that young man might at any mo- 
ment do something that would hurt that pre- 
cious submarine. 

There was a time not so long ago, Harry 
thought bitterly, when not a soul in the vil- 
lage knew that they owned a submarine that 
would really sink under water. He and Bob 
and Perry had discovered the boat at Shelter 
Cove, where Adrian Mansfield, her eccen- 
tric inventor, had built her. But Mr. Mans- 
field had disappeared and had left a note 
telling them that the Gray Whale was theirs. 
For weeks they had cruised in her and had 
kept their secret. Then they had been caught 
under water at Whirligig Point, and had had 
a terrifying time. Later they had been 
6 


THREATS OF WAR 


forced to tell their parents about the Gray 
Whale. They had won parental consent to 
keep the boat, but before they could go out 
in her again Mr. Hinkelstedt was to make 
her absolutely safe. That was why the Gray 
Whale was now on the boat builder’s float 
surrounded by Danny Dugan and his 
friends. 

Danny was not a stranger to boats or to 
Little Giant Creek. His father made a busi- 
ness of hiring out boats at a point below the 
railroad bridge near where the Creek entered 
Big Giant River. Danny could pull the 
strongest oar on the Creek. No boy could 
dive deeper or stay under water longer than 
he. But the submarine was something new 
to him. He had doubted, when the news first 
ran through the village. This morning he 
had come up the Creek with his companions. 
They had been prepared to make merry at 
the expense of Bob Drake and Harry King 
and Edward Perry. Instead, the sight of the 


7 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Gray Whale had filled them with awe. True, 
they had only seen her on the surface, but 
they did not doubt that she could do all that 
an excited village claimed for her. 

Danny wasn’t the sort of boy to watch and 
wonder idly. He generally wanted to know 
how the wheels went around. Nor was he 
a boy who could be stared down. He paid 
no attention to Harry King’s growls and 
grumbles. 

He grabbed the propeller. He pushed it 
back and forth. It moved without a creak or 
a groan. 

“Careful there, you Danny Dugan,” 
warned Mr. Hinkelstedt. 

“He’ll break something,” Harry called 
anxiously. 

Danny stuck his tongue in his cheek. 
“Ssh!” he said. “I could build one of these 
in a week if I wanted to.” 

Evidently his friends believed him, for they 
looked at Danny and laughed. They, too, 
8 


THREATS OF WAR 

laid hands on the rudder. But at that Danny 
assumed a different attitude. 

“Let her alone, fellows,” he ordered. “I’m 
inspecting this job.” 

They backed away. Danny caught the pro- 
peller and tried to turn it. 

“Drop that!” Harry yelled. His voice 
aroused Mr. Hinkelstedt. The old boat 
builder came to the stern and shook a stiff 
linger at the inquisitive boy. 

“You make no more nonsense, Danny Du- 
gan,” he warned, “or you go in your boat and 
away with you.” 

“Yes, sir,” said Danny. 

But when Mr. Hinkelstedt had gone 
around to the other side with Dave and 
Perry, the boy flashed a glance of anger at 
Harry. 

“You let up on your orders,” he threatened. 
“Just because you have this two by twice 
submarine you think you’re a mighty impor- 
tant fellow. Your head’s getting too big.” 


9 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“That’s right,” murmured the others. 

“Keep away from her,” Harry insisted 
stubbornly. “If you break something, who’s 
going to pay for it?” 

“I haven’t broke anything yet, have I?” 
Danny demanded. 

The trap at the top of the boat was raised, 
and Danny longed to get inside and see what 
was there. But Harry was watching him in- 
tently. Harry would never permit him to 
drop through the trap. Of that he was 
certain. 

He went around to where Mr. Hinkelstedt 
stood with Bob and Perry. 

“Hello, Bob,” he said. “Can I look at the 
inside?” 

Bob scratched his head and glanced at 
Mr. Hinkelstedt. The old boat builder 
frowned. 

“You are always up to somethings, Danny,” 
he said suspiciously. 

“I won’t hurt her,” the boy said eagerly. 


10 


THREATS OF WAR 

“All right,” Bob nodded. “Careful now, 
Danny.” 

“Sure!” said the boy. 

He found a ladder and carried it around 
the side, and leaned it against the Gray 
Whale. 

“What’s up?” Harry demanded. “Where 
are you going?” 

Danny grinned. “I’m going down to the 
engine room.” 

Harry made a rush for the ladder. “Come 
out of that. You’ll begin to monkey ” 

“Scat!” cried Danny. “Bob and Mr. 
Hinkelstedt said I could look at her.” 

Harry raised his voice. “O Bob! Did you 
say Dugan could go inside?” 

“For a little while,” Bob answered. 

Danny laughed. His friends jeered. They 
had been sadly put out by the sight of the 
submarine. Up to to-day Danny Dugan, 
their leader, had been the boss of Little Giant 
Creek. But this strange craft promised to 


II 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


make them all play second fiddle. They 
didn’t like the idea. 

“Make notes, Danny,” called a voice, “and 
w^e’ll build one ourselves.” 

“That’s us,” said Danny. 

He dropped into the hold. Five minutes 
later his voice boomed: 

“What’s this bar for. Bob — the one in the 
center?” 

“When you pull that,” Bob answered, “she 
floods and sinks. The water enters through 
those holes in the side.” 

“And what’s this thing with the pump 
handles for?” 

“That’s how you pump the water out when 
you want to come to the surface.” 

“Right-o!” called Danny. 

Bob turned to Mr. Hinkelstedt. “Think 
he understands how she works when I have 
told him so little?” 

“Ach, yes !” was the answer. “Danny he has 
been around boats since he was a little boy.” 


12 


THREATS OF WAR 


A few minutes later Danny’s voice let loose 
another question: 

“What’s this bicycle arrangement, Bob? 
That how you drive your propeller?” 

“That’s the way,” Bob answered. 

Harry King stood at the foot of the ladder 
and chafed. He thought it bad policy to have 
a fellow like Dugan becoming so familiar 
with the boat. Suppose Dugan got so he 
could run it? Suppose Dugan came aboard 
for a joke some night when the boat wasn’t 
guarded and ran off with her? Suppose he 
wrecked her? 

The longer Danny stayed in the hold the 
more restless Harry became. Why in thun- 
der had they made that mess of things at 
Whirligig Point? Only for that the boat 
would still be safe and sound at Shelter Cove 
and nobody would be the wiser. As it was, 
every boy in town knew of their craft and they 
would be besieged with fellows who wanted 
a sail in her. Half their sport was ended. 


13 


GRAY, WHALE— WARSHIP 


He began to wonder what Danny Dugan 
was doing that he was quiet so long. Sud- 
denly he heard a metallic sound. Was Danny 
fooling with the machinery? 

Up the ladder went Harry. He poked his 
head above the hold. He saw Danny, a 
pocket monkey wrench in his hands, tinker- 
ing with the bicycle frame from which a fel- 
low operated the pedals that in turn moved 
the propeller. 

“Come up out of there,” Harry cried. “O 
'Bob! This fellow’s taking things apart.” 

“I’m only examining this,” Danny cried 
indignantly. 

Bob Drake, hurrying around from the 
other side of the boat, climbed up the ladder 
and stood alongside Harry. 

“Put that stuff back, Danny,” he ordered 
calmly. 

Danny obeyed. 

“Now come out,” Bob ordered. 

Danny swung himself down to the float. 


14 


THREATS OF WAR 


“Did I not say no nonsense?” Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt raged. “I am responsible for the Gray 
Whale while she is here. I am a careful man. 
You come here and make trouble for me. Go 
away with you. All of you go away.” 

“I only wanted to see ” 

“You had no right to tinker with that ma- 
chinery,” Harry cried. “It’s not your boat.” 

“Oh, you give me a pain,” Danny answered 
angrily. 

His face had flushed. He climbed into his 
punt, and his friends embarked in theirs. 
They pulled away from the float. 

“She’s an old cheese-box,” Danny called. 
“I could build a better one myself.” 

The fleet of punts moved off to midstream. 
Suddenly Danny Dugan broke away from his 
friends and rowed back to the float. 

“I will build one,” he threatened. “And 
when I get it finished you fellows want to find 
a hole and hide. I’ll drive you from the 
Creek.” 


15 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 

“Yah!” yelled Harry. “Tell it to 
Sweeney.” 

Nevertheless the three boys felt far from 
comfortable. Danny Dugan was the sort of 
boy who made good his boasts. They 
watched his punt join the other boats. All 
five turned downstream. Oars flashed in the 
sunlight. After a while the punts passed 
under the railroad bridge and disappeared. 


CHAPTER II 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 

B ob drake, as the punts disappeared, 
turned toward the Gray Whale. He 
hurriedly climbed the ladder, and 
dropped nimbly into the hold. 

“All right,” he called after a moment. 
“He didn’t hurt her.” 

“Of course not,” said Mr. Hinkelstedt. 
“Danny Dugan would not on purpose break 
somethings. But he should not monkey so 
much.” 

“Think he’ll try to build a submarine?” 
Bob asked uneasily. 

“Nobody can ever tell what Danny Dugan 
will do,” the boat builder answered. 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“Oh, let him build,” Harry cried bravely. 
“What do we care?” 

But it seemed that Perry cared a whole 
lot. He pointed out that Danny had been no 
more eager to inspect the Gray Whale than 
they had been when first they saw her. 

“All right,” Harry answered indignantly. 
“But we didn’t go around with monkey 
wrenches prodding at her, did we?” 

“Mr. Mansfield wouldn’t have let us,” 
Perry answered. 

“And we wouldn’t let Danny,” Harry re- 
torted. “There you are. If he wants to build 
a submarine, let him go ahead.” 

Bob, during this argument, stared moodily 
at the water. After a few minutes he turned 
to Mr. Hinkelstedt. 

“If Danny intends to build,” he said, “the 
big thing for us to do is to improve the Gray 
Whale. Isn’t that right, Mr. Hinkelstedt?” 

“In time of peace,” said the boat builder 
wisely, “get ready for the battles.” 

i8 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


Bob nodded. “All right. Let’s see what 
W'e can do with our boat.” 

They spent an hour examining the hull. 
The wood was sound. Mr. Hinkelstedt 
prodded at her seams. 

“She wants better caulking,” he said. “I 
make a good job on that. Then she wants 
paint — lots of paint. Dirty gray paint. Then 
she cannot be seen much under water.” 

“We did paint her gray,” Harry said 
timidly. 

“Ach!” said Mr. Hinkelstedt. “You 
dipped a brush into a paint pots. That is not 
painting. I will make a real job of it for you.” 

They came to the inside of the boat. Here 
the height was so meager that Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt had to kneel. He growled and grum- 
bled at this, but was plainly interested. He 
ordered Harry to mount the bicycle and turn 
the propeller. He climbed outside to watch 
the action. In a few minutes he came back. 

“That will not do,” he said. 


19 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“You mean the bicycle frame?” Bob asked. 

“Ach, yes ! She is too slow. Where would 
you be in battles with that Danny Dugan? 
We must put an engine in here.” 

Harry gave a yell. “A real engine, Mr. 
Hinkelstedt?” 

“We will use dry batteries for power,” the 
boat builder explained. “A very small motor 
will take up not much room. The propeller 
will turn around faster then. Ach! We will 
make her a real boat, not a jokes.” 

“She is not a joke,” Harry cried hotly. 

But Mr. Hinkelstedt laughed and winked 
at Bob. “Always looking for a fight,” he said 
with a nod toward Harry. “Wait until that 
Danny Dugan gets after him.” 

“I’m not afraid of all the Dugans on the 
Creek,” said Harry. 

Now that the question of power had been 
disposed of, they began to think about ven- 
tilation. This was a vital question, for the 
fathers of the three boys had decreed that the 


20 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


Gray Whale could be used only if they found 
some way to make sure that they would al- 
ways have as much air as they needed. When 
they had been caught under water at Whirli- 
gig Point, they would have been suffocated 
had not Bob tilted the boat so that one of the 
ventilator horns stood out of water. Nothing 
like that must happen again. 

The Gray Whale had been built so that she 
could be submerged to a depth of two feet. 
At that depth her ventilators were just above 
the surface. But suppose they were caught 
so that they would be four or five feet under 
water? What then? 

“Can’t we make the ventilator pipes in 
sections?” Bob asked. 

Mr. Hinkelstedt pursed his lips. “What 
do you mean, Bob?” he asked. 

“Here,” cried Bob; “let me show you. 
Take this ventilator horn forward. She’s 
built into the boat. She cannot be moved. 
But suppose we had a piece of pipe built into 


21 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


the Gray Whale — just a small piece. This 
bit of pipe could have threads on the inside.” 

Mr. Hinkelstedt nodded. “Don’t stop,” he 
said. “Go on. Make no delays, Bob.” 

“Now, suppose we have the ventilator top 
attached to a piece of pipe that fits into the 
piece built into the boat. This second piece 
of pipe has threads, too. We screw it up 
through the built-in pipe. Say it brings the 
ventilator horn two feet above the deck.” 

“But she’s three feet up now,” Harry in- 
sisted. 

“Silence 1” cried Mr. Hinkelstedt fiercely. 
“How can I think when you are all the time 
interrupting?” 

Harry retired in confusion. 

“All right,” Bob continued, “we’ll say that 
this brings the horn two feet above water. 
But suppose we want her to be four feet 
above. What do we do? We take another 
piece of pipe and join it to the first piece. 
Then we screw the second piece up until the 


22 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


ventilator horn is four feet above the sur- 
face.” 

“Wow!” cried Harry. “I see it now.” 

Evidently Mr. Hinkelstedt saw it, too, for 
his face broke into a tangle of smiling 
wrinkles. 

“Very good,” he said heartily. “That is 
a practical idea. The boat can carry an as- 
sortment of pipes, ends all threaded. They 
can be used in any emergency.” 

“That’s what I mean,” Bob cried eagerly. 
“Will that be all right, Mr. Hinkelstedt?” 

“It could not be better,” said the old 
builder gravely, “if I thought of it myself.” 

“Hold on,” cried Perry. “There’s some- 
thing else. Bob.” 

“Shoot!” said Harry. “What is it? This 
is the place to have all problems solved. 
Bob’s the official solver.” 

“We must have a steel cap to screw over 
the end of the pipe that’s inside the boat. 
Remember how we kept the water out of the 

23 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 

Gray Whale at Whirligig Point by making 
a mixture of candle wax and threads and jam- 
ming the mixture into the ventilator pipes? 
We don’t want any more of that. Let Mr. 
Hinkelstedt make caps for each pipe. Then, 
if we ever got caught that way again, we 
could screw on the caps and keep out the 
water.” 

Bob nodded. “We’ll need caps, Mr. Hin- 
kelstedt.” 

The old builder spread his hands. “Any- 
thing you say, boys. I put in anything you 
say.” 

They decided that the lever by which they 
flooded the tank could not be improved on. 
Mr. Hinkelstedt, after much thought, told 
them that the pumps would continue to be 
worked by hand. 

“We will have only dry batteries,” he said, 
“and their power is not so much. It will not 
hurt you boys to do a little pumpings.” 

“Not a bit of it,” Harry agreed heartily. 


24 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


Wasn’t he the engineer? Wouldn’t he be the 
one to have charge of the batteries and the 
motor? What did he care about the pumps? 
Anyway, Perry was the one who had to look 
out for them. Perry would do the pumping. 

Toward noon the boys let themselves into 
their own flat-bottoms at the other side of the 
float. They rowed across Little Giant Creek 
to where the marsh grass grew thick and tall 
and high. They tied their boats to three 
posts hid amid the grass. A moment later 
they were walking along a narrow cinder path 
that squeezed its way out to the road that ran 
parallel with the Creek. 

The three boys found the village stirring 
with excitement. Every boy they met knew 
that Danny Dugan was to build a submarine 
and that it was to be a better boat than the 
Gray Whale. But Danny’s threat did not 
stop the fellows from following at Bob 
Drake’s heels, for whereas Danny might 
build a submarine. Bob already had one. 


25 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Charlie Carter, the village butcher’s son, of- 
fered to let Bob ride his father’s horse to the 
blacksmith shop. Bob declined the honor. 
He knew that if he rode the horse, Charlie 
would in return want a sail in the Gray 
Whale. Several days before the chums had 
decided that the only way to keep out of 
trouble was to turn a deaf ear to all requests 
for rides. Any fellow was welcome to go to 
Mr. Hinkelstedt’s float and take a look, but 
that was all. 

On Main Street they met Clara Dugan, 
Danny’s sister. She was several years older 
than Danny, and her tastes ran to canoes. 
Twice she had won prizes at the regattas 
of the Little Giant Boat Club. She was 
a rugged, healthy girl who loved the 
open air, and she took an amused inter- 
est in the adventures of her impetuous 
brother. 

“What have you boys been doing to Dan- 
ny?” she greeted. 


26 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


“You just ask Danny what he did to our 
boat,” Harry defended. 

Miss Dugan laughed. “What mischief has 
he been up to now?” 

“Oh, he didn’t hurt the boat,” Bob ex- 
plained. “He wanted to see how the pro- 
peller worked. Harry was afraid he might 
do some damage.” 

The girl nodded. “He’s pretty angry 
about something. He says he’s going to build 
a submarine of his own, and that there’s going 
to be war.” 

“Do you really think he’ll build a boat?” 
Perry asked nervously. 

Miss Dugan shook her head. “You can 
never tell what Danny will do.” 

That was what troubled the chums. You 
could never tell what to expect from Danny 
Dugan. If he was in earnest, the chances 
were he’d try to fashion a craft that would 
voyage under water. Harry had a sneaking 
feeling that it might have been better had he 


27 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


not paid so much attention to this red-haired 
Creek boy. 

They went back to the float in the after- 
noon and watched Mr. Hinkelstedt caulk the 
seams. Village boys rowed across the Creek 
and inspected the boat, and said they’d like 
to make a trip in her, and looked long and 
hard at Bob. But Bob extended no invita- 
tions, and the fellows went off vowing that 
it would serve him right if Danny Dugan did 
drive him from the Creek. 

The chums watched the sunlight dance 
on the waters; they turned lazy eyes down- 
stream whenever a railroad train rumbled 
over the bridge. Perry found a fishing 
line in Mr. Hinkelstedt’s boathouse and 
tried his luck. Killies stole his bait, and 
he put the line away. Along about five 
o’clock they went overboard for a swim. By 
the time they started home for supper the old 
boat builder had one-third of the seams fixed 
to his liking. 


28 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


“She will be a fine boat when I got through 
with her,” he informed them. 

For a week or so they went daily to Mr. 
Hinkelstedt’s float. He finished the caulk- 
ing, and then applied the paint. He put on 
three coats, and Harry admitted then that 
she was a different looking boat. The builder 
installed a small motor and rigged the dry 
batteries. Then, one dark, gray, drizzling 
day, he turned the current into the motor, and 
the propeller began to race. 

The boys, watching, forgot the grayness 
and the drizzle. Harry danced about im- 
patiently. 

“Show me how to run it, Mr. Hinkelstedt,” 
he pleaded. “Fm the engineer.” 

“Show us all how to run it,” Perry cried 
indignantly. “Suppose you get sick or some- 
thing. We’ll be in a fine fix, won’t we, if 
you’re the only one who knows how to make 
her go.” 

“Catch me getting sick,” Harry scoff- 


29 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


ed, “with an engine like that to take care 
of.” 

Nevertheless, Perry had his way. Mr. 
Hinkelstedt showed them all how to make 
the propeller do its work. He showed them, 
too, how to throw in the reverse so that the 
Gray Whale could move astern. Later Perry 
tried to operate the machinery, and Harry 
ordered him away. 

“Fm the engineer of this boat,” Harry said 
proudly, “and when I’m on. board nobody 
monkeys with her engines but me.” 

“Huh!” grunted Perry. “You’ll want a 
uniform next.” 

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Harry said 
thoughtfully. 

Mr. Hinkelstedt was a methodical man, 
and he brought system to the Gray Whale. 
He screwed two little brass holders into the 
woodwork, and each holder held one box of 
safety matches. He bought a box of short, 
thick, fat candles for use in the candle lamps, 
30 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


and he built a place to store the surplus stock. 
Lastly, he put a neat rack on either side of 
the boat. 

“What’s that for?” Bob asked. 

“That is for your dry batteries,” the boat 
builder explained. “Suppose your batteries 
go exhausted? What then do you do? You 
must have other batteries. So I build a place 
that -will hold twelve, and they will not be in 
the ways. There you are.” 

Bob glanced about the shipshape hold. 
Now that the bicycle apparatus was out, she 
seemed twice as big. 

“Say,” he said, “we’re going to have some 
fun in this craft this summer.” 

“How about Danny Dugan and his talk of 
a submarine?” Perry asked anxiously. 

“Piffle!” said Harry airily. “I’ve been 
thinking about this Dugan. He’s all wind. 
How is he going to build a submarine? 
What does he know about submarines, eh? 
You watch — he’ll do nothing.” 


31 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Bob nodded. “I guess Harry’s right. I 
don’t see how he can build anything like the 
Gray Whaled 

In fact, Bob had made two secret excur- 
sions, in his flat-bottom, to the Dugan place 
near the beginning of Big Giant River. On 
neither occasion had he noticed any evidences 
of building. Once Clara Dugan had seen 
him and had waved him a friendly greeting. 
Why couldn’t Danny be like his sister? Then 
there wouldn’t be any talk of trouble. 

Two days later the Gray Whale was put 
into the water. Into her hold piled her merry 
crew. Everything was so new — the machin- 
ery, the larger space, the ventilators — that 
they had no desire to go under water. Bob 
decided that this should be a sort of get- 
acquainted trip. They would see how she 
worked with all these improvements, and the 
better to observe, they would stay on the 
surface. 

The way the Gray Whale behaved brought 


32 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


a wide grin to all their faces. The propeller 
kicked her through the water at a speed 
twice as great as they had been able to attain 
before. The water, showing a trace of white 
foam, curled back along her curving sides. 
The Creek breezes blew spicily into their 
faces. 

“This is living,” said Harry. 

They thought so, too. They took her up 
the Creek as far as Shelter Cove. They did 
not go inside. They turned her and brought 
her downstream. 

“Let’s go right to the place where Big 
Giant River begins,” Harry cried. “Let’s 
show Dugan what we look like.” 

“Let’s,” cried Perry eagerly. 

So Bob, at the wheel, took the center of 
the Creek and let her go. A sense of daring 
held them all to-day. At the moment they 
didn’t give a fig for Danny Dugan and for 
all his threats. Besides, hadn’t they decided 
that Danny could not build a submarine? 


33 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Down they went — down past the mooring 
place at the end of the cinder path; past Mr. 
Hinkelstedt’s float, under the boatway of the 
railroad bridge, and so on past the Dugan 
place. They did not see Danny, and in that 
they were disappointed, for if they didn’t see 
Danny, plainly Danny would not see them. 

At the point where the Creek broadened 
out to meet the river they swung the Gray 
Whale around. The boat, meeting a cross 
tide, bobbed and rolled, and for a moment 
fell off. 

“Look!” cried Harry suddenly. 

Perry followed Harry’s pointing finger. 
He saw a clearing far in the rear of the 
Dugan house. A frame was there — a frame 
built of wood and shaped like a crude cigar. 

“What is it?” Perry gasped. 

But he knew what it was, and Harry did, 
too. The Gray Whale, answering the kick of 
her propeller, gathered headway. The clear- 
ing disappeared from sight. 


34 


THE ENEMY SHOWS ITS TEETH 


Bob, at the wheel, had not had a chance to 
look. “What was it?” he asked. 

“The frame of a submarine,” Perry told 
him excitedly. “Danny is building. I saw 
it. Harry saw it, too. Didn’t you, Harry?” 

Harry nodded soberly. 

“I guess Danny means what he said,” Bob 
grunted slowly. “It’s up to us now to see that 
he doesn’t drive us from the Creek.” 


CHAPTER III 


SHOWING DANNY 

T he prospect of having their beloved 
Gray Whale turned from a pleasure 
craft into a boat that needed tense, 
steady watching, threw a blanket of silence 
over the three boys. They had planned a fine 
summer on Little Giant Creek. Instead, 
there would be another submarine, and the 
other boat would mean them harm. After 
the money their fathers had spent in making 
the Gray Whale safe, it did not seem right to 
have their hopes and dreams ruined. 

Harry King scowled at the water. Perry, 
a worried look in his eyes, grumbled under 
his breath. Bob was at the lookout alongside 
36 


SHOWING DANNY 


the wheel and they could not see his face, but 
the set of his shoulders and the way he tossed 
his head from time to time showed them that 
he was not pleased. 

The boat veered in toward Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt’s float. 

“Don’t anchor,” Harry called. “Keep on 
up the Creek.” 

Bob looked back. “Why?” 

“We might as well think it over out here, 
as think it over ia there.” 

Bob turned the wheel. The boat lurched 
away in answer to her rudder. Soon her nose 
was pointed straight away. 

Harry was the sort of chap who saw no 
logic in nursing the blues. He could gen- 
erally get a laugh out of whatever happened. 
Slowly, as the boat continued up the Creek, 
the scowl left his face. By the time they were 
opposite Shelter Cove a grin had settled 
around his mouth. 

“Oh, I don’t know as this is so bad,” he 


37 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


said. “We ought to get a lot of fun out of 
this.” 

“Out of what?” asked Bob. “Out of hav- 
ing somebody planning to do damage to the 
Gray Whale?” 

“Drop the wheel,” Harry invited. “Come 
out here in the open and cool your head. 
What do you think Danny’s going to do? 
Mount a cannon on his boat and blow us out 
of the water? He can’t sink us or anything 
like that. He’d be arrested.” 

“But he says he’ll drive us from the Creek,” 
Bob insisted. 

“Oh, I guess he means he’ll make things 
so unpleasant for us that we’ll quit. Well, 
two can play at that game. Suppose we make 
it mighty hot for him?” 

“How?” Perry asked eagerly. 

“Oh, lots of ways,” Harry answered 
vaguely. “How is he going to stir things up 
for us? He must have some sort of plan. 
Well, we will get one. He isn’t the only fel- 
38 


SHOWING DANNY 


low on the Cteek who can think out a plan, 
is he?” 

Perry began to feel encouraged. Even 
Bob threw back his shoulders a bit more. 

“Why,” Harry went on with growing en- 
thusiasm, “look at the sport we’ll have. She 
won’t just be the Gray Whale. She’ll be a 
warship. Think of that! We’ll have drills, 
and we’ll stand watch, and — and — Oh, lots 
of things. We’ll have a flag, too. Turn her 
around. Bob. We’ll have Mr. Hinkelstedt 
put a flag staff on her. We’ll fly a battle flag.” 

“What’s that?” Perry asked. 

Harry confessed that he didn’t know, but 
that he’d find out. The main thing was, 
though, to have a flag. And when the Gray 
Whale ran alongside the float, he was the first 
one to clatter toward the boathouse where 
Mr. Hinkelstedt made many of the parts that 
he used in his boat repairing. 

The old builder blinked at them as they 
told of seeing the frame of a submarine. 


39 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“Ach! That Danny Dugan,” he said with 
a shake of his head. “He is always mixing 
up with somethings.” 

“Can we fly a flag, Mr. Hinkelstedt?” 
Harry demanded. 

“What you mean — fly a flag?” 

Bob explained. Mr. Hinkelstedt, after 
some thought, told them that he could put 
on two small staffs, one forward and one aft. 
The forward staff would carry the stars and 
stripes. 

“What will the other one be?” Harry de- 
manded. 

“That will be your ship flag,” was the an- 
swer. “We will put a gray whale on a blue 
fields.” 

Harry assured Mr. Hinkelstedt that he was 
a wonder. They left the submarine alongside 
the float, and rowed off in their flat-bottoms 
to the cinder path. 

“Won’t that be fine?” Perry asked. “A 
ship’s flag!” 


40 


SHOWING DANNY 


“Oh,” said Harry, “I’m the boy who can 
think of things.” 

“Sure you are,” Bob agreed dryly. “You’re 
the fellow who thought of the things to say 
to Danny Dugan.” 

But Harry refused to be driven from his 
happy-go-lucky frame of mind. He asked 
them not to forget that if it wasn’t for him 
they would never have had a ship’s flag. 

“And another thing,” he said. “You don’t 
want to forget that when this business is all 
over we’ll organize the Little Giant Veterans 
just like they have the G. A. R. and the Span- 
ish War Veterans.” 

“Thunder!” breathed Perry. “You do 
think of things, don’t you, Harry?” 

“I certainly do,” said Harry. 

Next morning, when they assembled at the 
float, Mr. Hinkelstedt was putting on the flag 
staffs. The ship’s flag would not be ready 
for a week. Harry suggested that they ought 
to drill. 


41 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 

“What kind of drill?” Bob asked sus- 
piciously. 

“Oh, regular war drills. Clear decks for 
action and all that. Couldn’t Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt — ” He stopped suddenly and ran off 
to where the old builder was working. They 
saw him talk excitedly for a few moments, 
and then he came back. “It’s all right,” he 
said. “Mr. Hinkelstedt will rig up a dry 
battery bell for us.” 

“What for?” Perry asked. 

“For the drills, of course. We haven’t 
any boatswain to pipe to quarters, have we? 
Then we’ll have the bell. One ring — close 
the hatch and stand by.” 

“Stand by what?” Perry asked. 

“How do I know?” Harry answered impa- 
tiently. “They do it on all the ships. Two rings 
— sink her. Three rings — pump her up. Four 
rings — full speed astern. Say, how’s that?” 

Bob grinned. “Can’t you get any more 
signals, Harry?” 


42 


SHOWING DANNY 

“I may later. That’s enough for now, 
isn’t it?” 

“Plenty,” Bob assured him. 

They took the Gray Whale out after 
Mr. Hinkelstedt had put a button along- 
side the wheel and had wired a bell and 
had connected the battery. Bob touched 
the button and the bell gave a prolonged 
clang. 

Instantly Harry and Perry dropped the 
trap and clamped it down. 

Bob pressed the button twice. 

Perry pulled the lever that flooded the 
tank. Abruptly the boat settled under water. 
They heard Bob’s voice. 

“You forgot something, Harry,” the leader 
chuckled. “We’re in darkness — you have no 
signal for lighting the candles. And how 
about a signal to start the engine?” 

Perry struck a match. The candles were 
lighted. Harry started the propeller. They 
could feel the Gray Whale making headway. 


43 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


In the old days they had never been conscious 
that she was moving. 

Bob clanged the bell three times. Perry 
and Harry started to pump. 

“Stop your pumping,” cried Bob after a 
few minutes. “Where’s your signal for that, 
Harry?” 

“What do you want to stop here for?” 
Harry demanded. “Don’t you want to go up 
to the surface?” 

“No.” 

“Well, where do you want to go?” 

“Up far enough to see clearly. We’re 
going faster with this engine than we ever 
went before. Suppose we run into some- 
thing?” 

Harry and Perry came away from the 
pumps. So, with the lookout about ten inches 
under, they cruised about for several hours. 
Now that the Gray Whale was no longer a 
secret, they did not avoid other boats. Twice 
they passed dark shadows that they knew 


44 


SHOWING DANNY 


were the sides of flat-bottoms, and on each 
occasion startled cries came down to their 
ears through the ventilator pipes. 

That evening, after the Gray Whale had 
been tied up at the float. Bob complained to 
Mr. Hinkelstedt that they ought to have some 
kind of arrangement on the boat so that they 
could see better. The old builder told them 
that with a periscope they could see all over 
the Creek, even while under water. 

“Get us one,” Harry cried. 

Mr. Hinkelstedt shook his head. “They 
cost very many dollars,” he explained. 

Harry grunted. “Well, can’t you make 
one?” 

“Could I make the moon or the sun?” the 
builder demanded wrathfully. “What you 
think I am, a jack of all trades?” 

But next morning Mr. Hinkelstedt was 
much mollified. He sat on the float and ex- 
plained that he could build a little house at 
the forward end of the boat. 


45 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“The top of the house would be just seven 
inches under water,” he said, “when the Gray 
Whale was down deep.” 

“That would let you see things dandy, 
wouldn’t it. Bob?” Harry cried. 

Bob nodded. However, he showed no en- 
thusiasm. “That house would add to the 
weight of the boat, Mr. Hinkelstedt?” 

“Ach, yes.” 

“And there would be a bigger surface 
turned to the water — I mean, instead of her 
pointed nose cutting through as now, she’d 
have a big lumbering thing on top, wouldn’t 
she?” 

“Yes.” 

“Wouldn’t that slow up her speed?” 

“Yes.” 

“How much?” 

The old builder shook his head. “I do not 
know. I am not an experts on submarines. 
Maybe much, maybe little.” 

They took the Gray Whale out. To-dayj 
46 


SHOWING DANNY 


they ran her into Shelter Cove. Once inside, 
they brought her to the surface and lazed in 
the sun. 

“Well,” Harry asked, “how about this lit- 
tle cottage up forward for Bob to steer?” 

Bob shook his head. “I say no. WeVe 
had experience enough not to batter up 
against things. What we need is speed. 
How do we know what Danny Dugan’s boat 
will be? We must have speed enough to 
hold our own with her.” 

Perry nodded. “That’s how I feel, Bob. 
Suppose Danny had a fast boat. He could 
run alongside us, and throw out grappling 
irons, and come aboard and ” 

“Help!” Harry roared. “What do you 
think he is, a pirate?” 

“But he said war ” 

“Rats!” Harry tossed his cap into the air. 
“This will probably be a play war.” 

“We don’t know what it will be,” said Bob. 
“We need speed on the Gray Whaled 


47 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


So they voted to have nothing to do with 
an elevated lookout. When they told Mr. 
Hinkelstedt he spread his hands in resigna- 
tion. 

“She is your boat,” he said. “You ask me, 
and I tell you what I can do.” 

But, though they rejected the builder’s sug- 
gestion, they took up the drills seriously. 
They found that the sunken logs that marked 
the inlet to Shelter Cove were turning dull, 
so they hauled them up and gave them more 
paint. After that, they spent a part of each 
day in the Cove, and there they had their 
drills. At any moment Bob might jerk the 
bell. They got so that as soon as it clanged, 
they vanished into the hold and closed the 
trap after them. The Gray Whale, accord- 
ing to Harry, became a credit to the Little 
Giant Creek navy. 

Now that they were doing things ship- 
shape, they elected Bob captain. Harry be- 
came chief engineer. Perry held the ple- 
48 


SHOWING DANNY 


beian place of crew. Twice they went down 
the Creek and took a peep at Dugan’s boat. 
They could see that she was coming along, 
but she was too far away for them to get any 
clear idea of just what she would be like. 

The day came when Mr. Hinkelstedt, in 
a stately speech, presented them with their 
ship’s flag. They ran the stars and stripes up 
the forward staff, and the gray whale on her 
field of blue went up aft. After that they 
cheered the builder, and they cheered the 
Gray Whale, and they even piped a cheer for 
Danny Dugan. Danny, had he heard it, 
would probably have been greatly surprised. 

They made a b^ave showing cruising up 
and down the Creek. Late in the afternoon 
they came back to the float. They did not tie 
up. With the boat on the surface and with 
the hatch up, they let her bob with the tide. 
Mr. Hinkelstedt, from the float, told them 
that he was proud of them, and that they 
looked like a good crew. 


49 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


The creaking of oars in rusty locks brought 
Bob’s eyes around. Fifty feet away he saw 
Danny Dugan, and Danny was rowing so 
that he would pass almost alongside. 

Danny had given them something to worry 
about. Here, Bob thought, was the place to 
stick a pin in Danny. The captain quietly 
slipped into the hold. He went to the look- 
out. He watched Danny’s boat advance. 
Danny was glancing over his shoulder at the 
Gray Whale. 

Suddenly Bob touched the button. In- 
stantly the gong clanged. Harry and Perry 
came tumbling into the hold. The trap fell. 

Bob, at the lookout glass, almost shouted. 
Danny Dugan had dropped the oars, and one 
of them had gone overboard and was drift- 
ing away. 

For a moment Bob stared gleefully at the 
boy who had threatened to drive them from 
the Creek. He knew that when he touched 
the button again the sound would carry out 
50 


SHOWING DANNY 


to the rowboat. He knew, too, that the way 
Harry and Perry had jumped at the bell 
sound must have given Danny considerable 
of a jolt. And he had an idea that when the 
bell clanged twice, and the Gray Whale 
quietly sank, Danny Dugan would have some- 
thing to think about for many days. 

He touched the button twice. He had a 
momentary vision of Danny’s baffled, startled 
face. Then the waters closed over the look- 
out. The propeller began to kick. The Gray 
Whale moved away. 

Perry, coming forward to light the candle, 
grumbled over the number of times they were 
forced to sink the boat and pump her up. 

“What was the idea of this drill. Bob?” 
Harry asked. “To show Mr. Hinkelstedt?” 

“No,” Bob answered; “to show Danny 
Dugan.” 

Harry jumped. “Was he there?” 

“Right alongside,” Bob grinned. “I 
thought you fellows didn’t see him.” 


51 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Harry gave a yell of delight. “Did you 
notice his face, Bob? Not a word spoken. 
Just a bell, and the whole ship jumps to at- 
tention. I bet he won’t sleep to-night. I’ll 
bet that jarred him from his head to his 
heels.” 

“I think it did,” Bob chuckled. 

Nor were they mistaken. Twenty minutes 
later, when they brought the Gray Whale 
alongside the float, Mr. Hinkelstedt insisted 
on shaking them by the hand. 

“That Danny Dugan,” he said, “has been 
bossing this Creek for years. He has been 
looking for troubles all the time. And to-day 
he got it; ach, yes, he got it. Why? Because 
I gives you a ship’s flag and you makes a good 
crew. That is the reason. And that Danny 
Dugan will have no stomach for his supper 
to-night.” 


CHAPTER IV 

A DECLARATION OF WAR 

T hat evening Harry spread through 
the village the story of how Danny 
Dugan had bumped into the surprise 
of his life. The youngsters of the village 
giggled over the tale. But Charlie Carter, 
the butcher’s son, grumbled that he didn’t 
see anything to laugh at. 

“Wait until Danny Dugan gets going,” he 
told Harry. 

Harry laughed. “Yah! You’re mad be- 
cause you haven’t had a sail in the Gray 
Whale." 

“Danny’s boat will be better than the Gray 
Whale" Charlie Carter taunted. “I’ll sail 
53 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


in that. And you don’t know who Danny will 
have for his crew.” 

‘Who?” Harry demanded. 

“Bill Davis and Reddy Farrant. What do 
you think of that?” 

Harry’s laugh was a failure. Farrant and 
Davis were husky boys who moved about in 
kingly fashion among the other village lads. 
Yet, if Harry couldn’t laugh, he could at least 
pretend a magnificent courage. 

“Huh!” he said. “Who’s afraid of them?” 

He hunted up Bob before bedtime, and re- 
lated what he had heard. Later they told 
Perry. Plainly Perry didn’t like the news. 

“Isn’t there some way we can find out just 
what sort of boat they will have?” he asked 
DBob. 

“I have a pair of field glasses,” Bob an- 
swered. “Suppose we try them.” 

Perry was willing to try anything. 

Next day they ran the Gray Whale down 
to where the Creek entered the River. Bob 


54 


A DECLARATION OF WAR 


keeping his head down as much as possible, 
took a long look at the Dugan boat. After 
a while Perry had a look, and then it was 
Harry’s turn. 

“She looks pretty clumsy,” Harry grunted. 
“Oh, let’s forget her. She can’t amount to 
much.” 

That’s what they all hoped. Perry, though, 
insisted that Danny Dugan was quite likely 
to furnish them with a surprise. 

“All right,” said Harry. “When it comes 
we’ll try to meet it. Let’s enjoy ourselves 
while we can.” 

They ran the Gray Whale to Shelter Cove. 
The shack in which Adrian Mansfield, the 
eccentric inventor, had lived had not seen 
much of them of late. Now they proceeded 
to make it look comfortable and cozy again. 
They repaired a leaky spot in the roof; they 
oiled the door hinges and tacked wire net- 
ting over the small windows. They took out 
the cooking outfit and scoured it. Rubbish 
55 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


that had collected was burned. A few pansies 
were planted in a shady spot. They stretched 
a piece of canvas from one side of the shack 
and created a place that stayed cool even in 
the midday sun. 

Crabs were now running — big, full- 
meated Jersey blues. The boys did not neg- 
lect their drills, but neither did they neglect 
the crabs. They used an old-fashioned drop 
line and scalping net. Perry wanted to use 
a patented trap that closed up like a satchel 
when it was hauled from the bottom. Bob 
and Harry protested. 

“A crab hasn’t a look in that way,” Bob 
explained. “If he’s on the frame when you 
pull the thing up, he’s caught. With the 
scalp net he has a chance for his life.” 

So, while one remained near the shack and 
got a fire going and a pot of water boiling, 
the others crabbed outside Shelter Cove. 
Daily they had at least one meal of crab meat. 
They took crabs home, too, and many times 
56 


A DECLARATION OF WAR 


they left a dozen or so for Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt. 

Meanwhile, the Dugan boat was not for- 
gotten. Every day or so they cruised down 
the Creek and used their glass on the clear- 
ing. They saw her begin to take finished 
shape. Perry, with a grin, insisted that they 
were spies, and that if they were caught they 
could be tried by court-martial and hung 
from the yardarm. Harry, however, declared 
that there was no yardarm on the Dugan boat, 
and that an5rway he’d like to see anybody try 
to hang him. 

It was exciting work, this secretly watch- 
ing the Dugan clearing. Several times they 
saw Davis and Farrant working on the craft, 
and once they saw Danny. And then, almost 
without warning, the shape in the clearing 
began to look like a real boat. 

Bob had a feeling that this strange craft 
looked more powerful than the Gray Whale. 
Harry whistled and still insisted that she 
57 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


wouldn’t amount to anything. Yet, whenever 
he sneaked the glass over the side and trained 
it on the clearing, he held it there a long time. 
At last the propeller went on, and right then 
and there Harry announced that they had bet- 
ter watch out. 

“That propeller’s twice as big as ours,” he 
said uneasily. 

“Will they use a bicycle frame like we 
used at first?” Perry wanted to know. 

“With a propeller like that?” Bob de- 
manded. “Nix. They’ll use electricity or 
gasoline.” 

“How can they use gasoline?” Harry 
asked. “How will they get rid of the fumes 
if they’re under water?” 

The problem was too big for Bob. They 
took the Gray Whale back to Shelter Cove, 
and Harry and Perry went out for crabs. 
But the sport seemed dull to-day. That busi- 
ness-like propeller had them worried. They 
soon quit and came back to where Bob should 
58 


[A DECLARATION OF WAR 


have had a fire going and water boiling in 
the pot. Bob, however, was sitting under the 
strip of canvas and the fire had not been 
lighted. 

“We must keep an eye on that Dugan 
boat,” he said when he saw them. 

For four days they quietly ran the Gray 
Whale down the Creek, and brought their 
field glass into play. On the fifth day Harry 
waved the glass recklessly as he talked to Bob. 
The sun flashed against the lense. 

“Look ou*-” cried Bob: “they’ll see 
you.” 

“They have seen us,” cried Perry. 

Davis and Farrant were throwing a cover- 
ing of some kind over the boat frame. Danny 
Dugan was running toward the house. 

“Sink her,” Bob called. “We’re too low: 
in the water for him to be sure we’re here. 
He’s going for a glass.” 

They dropped the trap and plunged the 
Gray Whale beneath the surface. After the 


59 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


propeller began to work, Harry suddenly 
laughed. 

“We’re a fine bunch of sapheads,” he said. 
“Our ventilators are above water and so are 
our flags. He’ll see those and know we were 
watching.” 

Nevertheless they kept the boat submerged. 
Early next morning they ran her back for 
another look. But the clearing was bare. 
The Dugan boat was gone. 

“That shows that Danny knows we were 
watching,” Harry said. 

Perry shivered. This was getting to have 
a real thrill, this talk of war on Little Giant 
Creek. 

What had happened? Had Dugan’s crowd 
taken their boat to some other hiding place, 
or was she in shape to launch? If they had 
launched her, where was she? They pa- 
tiently searched both banks of the Creek, but 
found no trace of the submarine. The Dugan 
boat had disappeared. 

6o 


'A DECLARATION OF WAR 


They tried to think up ways of increasing 
the speed of the Gray Whale. Harry sug- 
gested that they should lighten her, but Bob 
pointed out that if they did that she would 
sink more than two feet under when her 
tank was filled. In the end they came to the 
conclusion that it was best to leave her as she 
was. Perhaps the Dugan boat would fail 
utterly once it reached the water. 

Meanwhile, they patrolled the Creek each 
day seeking signs of the enemy. They trav- 
eled boldly on the surface now, realizing that 
the time for skulking was past. Clara Dugan, 
on more than one occasion, waved to them 
from the Dugan float. Harry, with the con- 
sent of Bob, dipped the Gray Whalers flag. 
But they saw no sign of Danny, nor did they 
find Danny’s boat. 

Harry, who could always find something 
on which to hang a hope, decided that the 
Dugan boat had been tried and had failed. 

“Of course she has failed,” he argued to 

6i 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Bob and Perry. “Else why can’t we find her? 
Suppose we made threats and put a boat in 
the water. Suppose the boat was a fizzle. 
Wouldn’t we keep quiet about it? That’s 
what Danny and his crowd are doing.” 

“I hope so,” muttered Perry. 

“Hope so,” Harry jeered. “It is so, I tell 
you. I know what I’m talking about.” 

“You always do,” Bob ventured dryly. 

“I do this time, anyway,” Harry vowed. 

But next morning, when they reached the 
float, Mr. Hinkelstedt handed them a sealed 
letter. The address read; 

Mr. Robert Drake, 

Capt. Gray Whale, 

Hinkelstedt’s Float, 

Little Giant Creek. 

“Who brought this?” Bob asked. 

“Reddy Farrant,” Mr. Hinkelstedt an- 
swered. “He said he came by orders of that 
Danny Dugan.” 


62 


A DECLARATION OF WAR 


“Open it,” Harry cried. “Open it, Bob. 
I’ll bet Danny’s eating humble pie and ask- 
ing us to let him be one of our crew.” 

Bob ripped open the letter. Standing on 
the float he read aloud: 

Mr. Robert Drake, 

Dear Sir: 

On behalf of the officers and crew of 
the submarine boat Little Giant, I hereby 
declare war on the submarine boat Gray 
Whale. This war will continue until either 
the Gray Whale or the Little Giant is cap- 
tured. Should you refuse to accept this 
challenge,' we give warning that we will 
seize the Gray Whale any time we can. 

If you accept this challenge, these shall be 
the rules of the war: 

First: Doing injury to either boat, such 
as ramming, boring holes under water line, 
etc., shall not be allowed. 

“Say,” Perry gasped, “this is going to be 
a real war, isn’t it?” 

Harry nodded grimly. “Go on, Bob.” 

Bob continued: 


63 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Second: The use of weapons, such as 
sticks, stones, shall not be permitted. Only 
bare hands can be used. 

Third: A flag of truce must always be 
respected. 

Fourth: Neither side shall hold a pris- 
oner for more than three hours, and pris- 
oners must not be ducked in the Creek. 

Fifth: Either side can try to board the 
other side’s boat at any time. If there is a 
scrap while one side is trying to board the 
boat of the other side, it will be all right to 
try to throw each other overboard. 

Sixth: Hauling down the flag will be 
notice of surrender. 

Seventh: Boats must be guarded at all 
times, as night attacks will be permitted. 

Eighth: A captured boat becomes the 
property of the victorious side. 

Awaiting your reply, I am. 

Your obedient servant, 

Daniel Dugan, 

Capt. Little Giant. 

“He copied that out of a book,” Harry 
sneered. “He never thought of all those 
things himself.” 

Perry wasn’t interested in where Danny 

64 


'A DECLARATION OF WAR 


had found his material. “They want to take 
our Gray fFhale,'' he cried. “See what they 
say. If they capture the Gray Whale, she be- 
longs to them. We won’t fight them.” 

“I guess we must fight,” Bob answered 
slowly. “They say here that if we don’t ac- 
cept this war, they’ll capture our boat, any- 
way. We might as well fight.” 

“I’ll tell my father,” Perry cried. “They 
can’t take our boat that way. Tell your fa- 
ther, Harry.” 

But Harry shook his head. “And have 
every fellow in the village calling me a ’fraid 
cat? I guess not. I’m willing to fight them. 
Aren’t you. Bob?” 

“It doesn’t make any difference whether 
I’m willing or not,” Bob grunted. “I must. 
Otherwise, they’ll take the Gray Whale with- 
out a struggle.” 

There was a long silence. They made no 
attempt to go aboard their boat. Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt came out of his repair shop, fitted new 

65 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


oarlocks into a boat, looked at them curiously, 
and then pattered back to his shop. 

“We must answer this letter,” said Bob at 
last. 

“Tell them we’ll fight,” said Harry. 

Bob glanced at the other boy. “How 
about you. Perry?” 

Perry wet his lips. “All — all right,” he 
stammered. “I’m game if you fellows are, 
even if they are bigger. And you can tell 
Danny Dugan for me that the first time he 
tries to come aboard this boat I’ll knock every 
freckle off his nose.” 

Mr. Hinkelstedt came out of his shop in 
time to hear the end of Perry’s speech. 

“Ach!” he said. “The little worm has 


turned around.” 


CHAPTER V 

THE LITTLE GIANT 

B ob climbed ^ into the Gray Whale. 
Harry followed him. After a moment 
of indecision, Perry, too, went into the 
boat. They cast off. The signal bell was not 
given this morning. Harry set the engine 
going without orders, and they ran to the 
peace and quiet of Shelter Cove. 

They knew that some sort of answer was 
expected by Danny Dugan. But what should 
they say? They talked over the problem until 
noon. Suppose they didn’t want to agree to 
all the rules that Danny had laid down. 
What then? 

“Let’s ask Mr. Hinkelstedt,” Harry advised. 
67 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


They ran the Gray Whale back to the float. 
Charlie Carter, crabbing at the bend, shouted 
to them that they ought to see the Little 
Giant. They made no reply. They were in 
no mood to bandy words this bright day. 

The old builder, with a pair of enormous 
eyeglasses perched on his nose, read the letter 
through. 

“That Danny Dugan is a sharp young 
mans,” he said gravely. “What you do, 
boys?” 

“We’ll fight,” Harry answered promptly. 

Mr. Hinkelstedt nodded approval. “That 
is right. Sometimes the small dog does bad 
business by the big dog.” 

“But look here, Mr. Hinkelstedt.” Bob 
pointed to the list of clauses. “Do we have 
to agree to all that?” 

The builder read them through the second 
time. “What is there that you do not want?” 
he asked. “Do you want that it shall be 
right to duck prisoners in the Creek?” 

68 


THE LITTLE GIANT 


“No,” Perry answered hastily. 

“What then is wrong? About capturing 
boats? That is the whole war, isn’t it? With- 
out captures how could you have a wars?” 

“It doesn’t seem fair,” Harry grumbled. 

“The worst part is,” Mr. Hinkelstedt went 
on, “this night attacks. How about that, eh? 
Will your papas let you stay up all night to 
watch the Gray Whale?” 

Harry looked uncomfortable. Here was 
something he had not taken into account. 
Suppose they had to leave their boat un- 
guarded? How long would it be before 
Danny Dugan had her? 

“I’m going to tell my dad about this,” Bob 
said. 

“But how about an answer?” Perry in- 
sisted. “Danny will expect ” 

“Danny will have to wait,” Bob snapped 
out. 

That night, after supper, he laid the mat- 
ter before his father. He also showed Dan- 
69 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


ny’s letter and told of the incidents on Mr. 
Hinkelstedt’s float that had led up to Danny’s 
declaration of war. 

Mr. Drake listened gravely. “So you want 
to guard the boat every night, is that it?” 

“Oh, no, sir,” Bob hastened to explain. “I 
would guard one night, and Bob another 
night, and Perry another night.” 

“What have Mr. King and Mr. Perry 
said?” 

“I don’t know, sir,” the boy confessed. 

Mr. Drake reached for the telephone. 
“You can wait on the porch. Bob,” he 
said. 

So Bob sat on the porch. After a while 
Harry’s father and Perry’s father arrived, 
and shortly afterwards Harry and Perry 
came, too. 

“What is it?” they asked Bob. 

“I guess it’s a meeting to decide whether 
we can guard the Gray Whale at night.” 

Harry gave a suppressed shout. “Oh, I 


70 


THE LITTLE GIANT 


hope they let us. Think of sitting up all 
night with strange noises and creepy shivers 
up your back, and all that.” 

“Think of Danny Dugan’s crowd attacking 
you in the darkness,” Perry trembled. 

But Perry’s fears made no impression on 
Harry. An hour later Mr. Drake appeared 
in the doorway. 

“Come in, boys,” he invited. 

They entered the library. They sat down 
and faced the three men. 

“Under these — these articles of war,” Mr. 
Drake said, “it is forbidden to hurt a fellow, 
isn’t it?” 

“Yes, sir,” Bob answered. 

“Good! Now, about this night watching. 
How would you do that?” 

Bob glanced at Harry and at Perry. Perry 
shook his head helplessly. Harry, however, 
bobbed up with an answer. 

“We’d anchor the Gray Whale,” he said 
confidently, “at some place where she’d be 

71 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


safe — ^where no other boy could run into it by 
accident.” 

“At Shelter Cove, for instance?” Mr. 
Drake asked. 

“Well, maybe not the Cove, sir; but some 
place like that.” 

“I see. How about mosquitoes?” 

“That would be easy. Mr. Hinkelstedt 
could build us a little screen for the trap top. 
A fellow could set the screen, lie under the 
hatch and stare up at the stars until he fell 
asleep.” 

“How about a rainy night?” Mr. Drake 
asked quietly. 

That had the boys stumped. Neither Bob 
nor Harry could answer the question, and 
Perry did not even try. Finally Harry said 
doubtfully: 

“Maybe the war could be suspended on 
rainy nights, sir.” 

“Very well, boys. You had better take up 
that question with Dan — ^with Captain Dan- 
72 


THE LITTLE GIANT 


ny. If the war ends whenever it rains, we 
have no objections to one of you sleeping in 
the Gray Whale if you take turns.” 

“Oh, we’ll take turns all right,” Harry 
cried happily. “I wouldn’t miss my turn.” 

Perry said nothing. 

Next morning they wrote a note to Danny 
Dugan. They told him they were ready to 
fight, but that there was one point that needed 
debate. Perry carried the letter to the Dugan 
float and delivered it to Clara Dugan. He 
rowed back with the news that he had seen 
something in the water alongside the float 
that had looked like a submarine. 

“Big as the Gray Whale?'' Harry de- 
manded. 

“Bigger,” said Perry. 

An hour later the three boys saw a boat 
come up the Creek and turn her nose toward 
their float. Bob looked at her through the 
glass. 

“It’s Danny,” he gasped. “He’s got a 
73 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


hat with gold braid, and gold braid on his 
coat, too. Davis and Farrant are rowing 
him.” 

“He’s coming to see us just like an ad- 
miral,” Harry cried excitedly. “What’s that 
thing he has in his hand. Bob?” 

“A white flag,” Bob answered. 

Harry jumped up. “That’s a flag of truce 
so we won’t capture him. What do you do 
when a flag of truce comes along?” 

Bob didn’t know. Perry sat in speechless 
wonder staring at the advancing boat. She 
was so near now, that they could see the 
words Little Giant painted on her bow. 

“That’s their jolly boat,” Harry whispered 
hoarsely. 

Perry found his voice. “What’s a jolly 
boat, Harry?” 

“It’s the boat the captain goes rowing in,” 
Harry answered. “Don’t you remember the 
wreck of the jolly boat when we read ‘Treas- 
use Island’?” 


74 


THE LITTLE GIANT 


“Huh!” said Bob scornfully. “The cap- 
tain goes visiting in the captain’s gig.” 

The enemy was now almost abreast the 
float. Those on the float could see that not 
only was Danny decorated with braid, but 
that Davis and Farrant had braid on their 
caps, too. Danny Dugan sat very stiffly in 
the punt. 

“Ship oars,” he ordered sternly. 

Davis and Farrant brought in their oars. 
They held the punt, and Danny stepped 
aboard the float. 

“My respects to Captain Drake,” he said, 
and bowed. 

Bob, after a moment’s hesitation, returned 
the bow. They walked off a few steps. Har- 
ry glanced at Perry. 

“What do you know about that?” he 
gasped. 

Ten minutes later Danny came down to 
the float edge. He bowed once more to Bob 
and stepped into the punt. She drifted away. 


75 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


When she had plenty of sea room Danny lift- 
ed his voice: 

“Oars,” he said shortly. 

Davis and Farrant dropped their blades 
into the water. The punt swept down the 
Creek. 

“How is that for a trained crew?” Perry 
asked. 

Harry did not reply. 

“We thought we gave Danny a start with 
our bell drill,” he said. “I guess that’s better 
than ours, eh?” 

Harry nodded. 

They watched the punt until it disap- 
peared. Harry sighed. 

“Gold braid!” he said. “We’ll have to get 
some of that. Bob. What did his lordship 
Dugan want?” 

“We talked about not guarding on rainy 
nights.” 

“You did? What did he say?” 

“He’s willing. Any night we can’t guard 
76 


THE LITTLE GIANT 


the Gray Whale we’re to show a red lan- 
tern from the float. Any night they can’t 
guard the Little Giant they’ll show a light 
from their float. That ends the war for the 
night.” 

“Even if it’s not raining?” Harry de- 
manded. 

“Certainly. Suppose the circus came to 
town. We wouldn’t want to have war that 
night, would we?” 

“I guess not,” said Perry. 

Now that they were sure of conflict, they 
had Mr. Hinkelstedt build the trap screen. 
The war was not to begin until the following 
Monday. That left them three days to draw 
up a plan of campaign. 

All day Friday they racked their brains for 
a place to hide the Gray Whale at night. 
Saturday morning Bob appeared with a plan. 

“Let’s go right on using Shelter Cove,” he 
said. 

Perry gave a cry of dismay. “Why, they’d 
77 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 

find us there in no time. That’s the first 
place they’d look.” 

“They’d find us, anyway,” Bob answered, 
“and I guess we’d all feel more secure in the 
Cove. We can swing a rope across the inlet 
at night, and any fellow who doesn’t know 
his ground will have trouble going through 
there, rope or no rope. Once they get inside 
they’ll have to hunt for the Gray Whale. 
And they’ll move slowly because they won’t 
want to make much noise.” 

“But how can we see them?” Harry asked. 
“If there was no moon, we might hear them 
but not be able to tell where they were.” 

Bob smiled. “Suppose we kept a powerful 
lamp aboard. Light it at night and cover it 
so it wouldn’t show. When the fellow guard- 
ing heard a noise he’d flash the lamp at the 
inlet. I mean a lamp that throws a good, big 
ray, like a powerful bicycle lamp. What 
would happen then?” 

Harry grinned. “Why, Danny Dugan’s 
78 


THE LITTLE GIANT 


crowd would find their boat in the light, and 
they couldn’t see us. They wouldn’t know 
what was coming next, so they’d get out of 
the Cove in a hurry and take no chances.” 

“That’s how I figure it,” Bob nodded. 
“The Cove is the safest place for us.” 

They got aboard the Gray Whale and 
turned her nose upstream. Harry brought 
out their private map of the Creek, a map 
that they had made themselves. He started 
to add a few words. 

“What are you doing?” Bob demanded. 

“I’m correcting this map,” Harry an- 
swered. 

“What’s wrong with it?” 

“It says Shelter Cove. That’s wrong. It 
must say Shelter Cove Navy Yard.” 

Perry, from the hold, announced that the 
affair began to sound more and more like 
real war each day. 

“It is real war,” Harry announced. “And 
we’re not afraid of anybody. Say, Bob, 
79 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 

Danny may have his crew trained, but I’ll 
bet he hasn’t a navy yard.” 

That afternoon Perry brought his bicycle 
lamp aboard. They went to the Cove and 
tried it, but the sun was too bright for them 
to be able to tell results. They spent an hour 
picking out a new mooring place for the 
Gray Whale. In the end they decided to 
place her north of the inlet and almost up 
against the salt marsh reeds. 

That much accomplished, they came back 
to Mr. Hinkelstedt’s float. For want of some- 
thing better to do Bob threw over a crab line ; 
but the tide was wrong, and he caught noth- 
ing. Yet he kept the line overboard. 

Harry sat alongside his captain. “The war 
starts Monday, doesn’t it?” 

Bob nodded. 

Harry dabbled his hand in the water. “All 
we’ve seen,” he said, “is some of their dis- 
cipline, and they may have done that just to 
scare us. How about their boat? How about 
8o 


THE LITTLE GIANT 

the Little Giant? Why don’t they show 
her?” 

Perry dropped down alongside Harry. 
“Maybe she isn’t as good a boat as she ought 
to be,” he said hopefully. 

“She isn’t,” Harry answered decidedly. 
“I’ve thought this whole thing out. They’ve 
put their boat overboard, and she’s sunk or 
something else has happened to her.” 

“Don’t be too sure,” Bob cautioned. 

“Huh!” Harry gave him a frown. “Didn’t 
we show the Gray Whale after Mr. Hin- 
kelstedt fixed her? You just make a note in 
your little book that I’m right.” 

“Maybe they’ll come around sometime 
when we don’t expect them,” Perry said 
doubtingly. “Maybe ” 

His voice trailed off into silence. Bob 
glanced up from his line. 

“Hello!” he called sharply. “What’s the 
matter. Perry?” 

“Look,” Perry cried weakly. 

8i 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


He pointed an unsteady finger out toward 
the Creek. Harry and Bob stared intently. 
At first they saw nothing. 

“You’re crazy,” Harry said cheerfully. 
“You’re seeing things.” 

“Look,” Perry cried again. “Out there 
opposite our cinder path. See it. Bob? See 
it, Harry?” 

This time they saw. A curling ripple of 
water was running steadily upstream. It was 
as though somebody was drawing a stout stick 
rapidly through the water. But nothing was 
on the surface. 

It kept right on, past the cinder path, past 
the upper stretch of boathouses. Bob 
jumped into the Gray Whale and got his 
glass. He saw that ripple reach the bend 
and pass right on. He lowered the glass. 

“What was it. Bob?” Harry cried excitedly. 

“Danny Dugan’s submarine,” Perry whis- 
pered. 

Bob nodded. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 

T he three boys sat in silence on the 
float. Fifteen minutes later that 
ripple came down the Creek. This 
time it was on their side of the stream, 
and they could see it plainly. There could 
be no doubt that something under water 
caused that commotion. Perry even in- 
sisted that he saw the shadowy outline of a 
boat. 

When they rowed across to the cinder path 
that evening, it was with the knowledge that 
never again might they be able to leave the 
Gray Whale unguarded. 

“We’ll meet to-morrow afternoon at my 

83 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


house,” said Bob. “Well see if we can’t rig 
up another plan or two.” 

By the time they got together next after- 
noon there was every reason in the world 
why they should plan. For it had suddenly 
dawned on Bob that this was an unequal com- 
bat with the advantage all on the side of 
Danny Dugan. 

Early in the summer, following their ad- 
ventures at Whirligig Point when the Gray 
Whale had been caught under water, their 
fathers had insisted that the boat be made safe 
before she be used again. The parents had 
insisted on one other point, too. The boys 
had had to promise that they would never 
take the Gray Whale into Big Giant River. 

The river was dangerous. Here and there 
were sandbars, and eddies, and strong unex- 
pected currents in unexpected places. A boat 
like the Gray Whale, caught in such a river, 
might easily come to disaster. 

“See how it is?” Bob asked Harry and 
84 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


Perry. “They will find us on the Creek. 
Danny knows it about as good as we do. He’ll 
locate us, and then we’ll have to guard the 
Gray Whale with no chance of making an 
attack on them.” 

“Why not?” Harry demanded. 

“Because he’ll probably moor the Little 
Giant in the river. His float is right where 
the Creek enters the river, anyway. So he’ll 
be able to come up here and rush us, and we 
won’t be able to go into the river after him.” 

“That makes it all one-sided,” Perry cried 
in alarm. 

Of course the war was one-sided. Bob 
agreed. But could they quit? Could they 
play the baby act? They were in for it, and 
they would have to give as good an account 
of themselves as possible. 

“But we’ll lose the Gray Whale in the 
end,” Perry argued. 

“We haven’t lost her yet,” Bob answered 
grimly. “We’ll watch the Gray Whale so 

85 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


carefully that they won’t be able to lay a 
finger on her.” 

“But there’s no fun in letting the other fel- 
low do all the fighting,” Harry complained. 

“Maybe we’ll do a little fighting, too,” Bob 
answered. 

Monday morning started the war — and 
Monday morning saw each of the three boys 
up with the sun. They met at the cinder 
path before seven o’clock. Had the Dugan 
fellows gone to Mr. Hinkelstedt’s float and 
attacked the Gray Whale. But, no; they saw 
the boat as soon as their punts reached the 
open waters of the Creek. 

They climbed aboard. There was no sign 
of the Little Giant. For a while they idled 
about the float. Then, moved by a spirit of 
restlessness, they ran the boat to Shelter Cove. 
Bob, using his glasses, made sure that the 
Little Giant was not watching them before 
he swung his boat through the inlet. 

Now that the war was on they all felt ill 
86 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


at ease. What did you do in time of war? 
Drill? Surely, you couldn’t be drilling all 
the time. Guarding against surprises? Cer- 
tainly. But how guard against surprise? 

“Here,” called Harry. “Let’s build a plat- 
form on top of the shack. Every half hour 
somebody can go up with the glass and scan 
the Creek. We can’t see the stream from 
here — the reeds hide it. But with a lookout 
we’d be all right. They couldn’t creep up on 
us.” 

They decided to run the Gray Whale out. 
They would fetch back hammers and nails. 
Time had sent plenty of driftwood into the 
Cove — enough to build many, many lookouts. 

“We’ll tow one of the punts,” Bob ex- 
plained. 

“And leave the other two here?” Harry 
asked. 

“Yes.” 

“Suppose the Dugan crowd sticks its nose 
in while we’re gone?” 

87 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Bob sat down and scratched his head. 
Here was another problem. They’d have to 
guard their punts almost as steadily as they 
guarded the Gray Whale. 

“We’ll split them,” the leader said at last. 
“Leave one here. Take two with us now. 
We’ll tie one up with Mr. Hinkelstedt, and 
keep the third at the cinder path.” 

They left Harry’s punt in the Cove. The 
other two were towed down the Creek. They 
ran to Mr. Hinkelstedt’s float. He gave 
them hammers and nails, and they threw 
him the rope of one of the punts. They 
went up the Creek again, and on to the 
Cove. Still they had seen nothing of the 
Little Giant. 

All afternoon they worked on the platform. 
A rough ladder led to it from the ground. 
When it was finished they used the glass on 
the Creek. They could see as far down as the 
Bend, and up until the Creek lost itself in 
narrower banks. 


88 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


“Thunder!” cried Harry. “I’m as hungry 
as a bear.” 

“So am I,” said Perry. 

“Look here,” Bob said suddenly. “How- 
can we all go home to supper? Somebody 
must guard the Gray Whale." 

“I’m not going to miss my meal,” Harry 
objected. 

“Dad always wants me in for supper,” 
Perry explained. 

“We’ll have Mr. Hinkelstedt mind the 
Gray Whale to-night,” said Bob. “We’ll send 
word to Danny that the war must stop long 
enough to let us eat supper.” 

However, they didn’t have to lay the mat- 
ter before the enemy’s chief, for when they 
came to the float, Reddy Farrant awaited 
them under a flag of truce. Reddy touched 
his cap in true warship fashion. 

“Captain Dugan’s compliments,” he said, 
“and will Captain Drake agree to a truce from 
six to eight each night so the crews can eat?” 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Bob had no chance to answer. Harry 
threw the dignity of warfare to the four 
winds. 

“Compliments of nobody,” he yelled. “You 
tell Danny Dugan that he can have until 
eight o’clock. If he isn’t on the job then, 
we’ll come down and take his boat away from 
him.” 

Reddy Farrant likewise forgot his diplo- 
macy. “Yah!” he yelled. “You couldn’t take 
a fish off a hook. We’re coming after you as 
soon as we eat.” 

He rowed off. They watched him go. 

“Think he means that?” Bob asked. 

“About coming for us to-night?” Harry 
demanded. He shrugged his shoulders. “I 
don’t know.” 

“Who’s going to watch to-night?” Perry 
asked uneasily. 

“I guess we all had better watch,” Bob an- 
swered. “Maybe they will come down on 
us.” 


go 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


After supper they returned to Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt’s float. Bob’s mother had given him a 
small box of sandwiches, and Harry had two 
bottles of milk. They ran the Gray Whale 
back to the Cove. In the darkness they had 
a bad half hour trying to find the inlet. 
Finally they got inside. The bicycle lamp 
was lighted and cautiously moved about until 
they found their mooring place. They 
looped a rope from one side of the inlet to 
fhe other. After that they felt that they 
were as secure as thought and plan could 
make them. They settled down to a night of 
watchfulness. 

There was but little moon, and it threw 
practically no light. From the high, dark 
sky a million stars blinked down at them. 
Occasionally they heard a train roar across 
the railroad bridge. The night was full of 
the songs of the frogs, the noise of night 
inserts, and the chilly feel of the Cteek dark- 
ness. 


91 


GRAY, WHALE— WARSHIP 


“What time do you think they’ll come?” 
Harry whispered to Bob. 

The captain spoke softly. “Don’t know. 
We can only watch.” 

They heard the village clock strike nine, 
and at ten o’clock the fire whistle sounded. 
Still no sign of the enemy. Half an hour 
later Harry yawned. 

“I’m tired,” he grumbled. “Must we stay 
this way all night?” 

Bob decided that they should draw straws 
— the shortest straw should watch until mid- 
night, the next shortest until two o’clock, and 
the largest straw should watch from two to 
four o’clock. 

“If they don’t appear by that time,” Bob 
stated, “they won’t be here at all.” 

Harry drew the shortest straw, and 
Perry drew the longest. Bob and Perry 
stretched off on the floor of the hold. Harry 
propped his back against the starboard 
side. 


92 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


“Right on the minute of midnight I’ll have 
you out of there, Bob,” he announced. 

But he had the whole crew aroused before 
then. The village clock struck eleven, and 
shortly after that Harry heard the sound of 
oars. He shook Bob and Perry. 

“They’re coming,” he announced hoarsely. 

Bob and Perry sat up with a jump. They 
pulled out the lamp from where it had been 
almost covered in a corner. They listened. 
They heard the oars, too. 

“What can we do?” Perry demanded in an 
agitated voice. His heart was thumping. 

“They’re at the inlet,” Harry whispered. 
“There! The oars have stopped.” 

Crouched in the hold they listened. Sud- 
denly they heard a voice: 

“Everything’s all right, boys.” 

“Mr. Hinkelstedt!” cried Perry. Bob 
called to the builder to come in. 

“No,” came the answer. “I go home to 
bed. I wanted to see how you were. You 


93 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


are a good crew. You watch well. Good 
night.” 

They heard his boat go down the Creek. 

After that scare, sleep was out of the 
question. They sat in the hold talking quietly 
until two o’clock. 

“Perry’s watch,” said Harry. 

He and Bob stretched off. Harry was soon 
asleep. Fifteen minutes later Bob mur- 
mured : 

“How goes it, PeFry?” 

“Oh!” Perry’s voice expressed relief. 
“You awake. Bob? It’s scary when you sit 
up alone, isn’t it?” 

Bob said it was. He moved over so that 
his right shoulder rested against Perry’s 
knee. 

“Call me if you hear anything,” he in- 
vited. 

“I will,” Perry answered thankfully. He 
seemed to find relief in the nearness of his 
companion. 


94 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


When Bob awakened it was broad day- 
light. Perry lay beside him sleeping. The 
captain lifted the mosquito screen and peered 
out. The rope across the inlet was just as 
they had left it. He went forward and 
touched the bell. It clanged loudly. Harry 
and Perry awakened. 

“Here we are,” Bob called. “All safe and 
sound.” 

They celebrated by going overboard for a 
morning swim. They sailed the Gray Whale 
back to the float. ' While Mr. Hinkelstedt 
watched it, they went home to breakfast. 
Their night in the open air had given them 
the appetite of wolves. Bob announced that 
he would see if the war couldn’t be shut down 
from seven to ten o’clock each morning for 
breakfast, and from two to four o’clock each 
afternoon. 

“We must eat and do our chores,” he ex- 
plained. 

Later in the day they heard from Danny 
95 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Dugan. The morning truce was agreed to, 
but not the afternoon. 

“All right,” said Bob. “We’ll do all our 
chores in the fnorning and bring lunch with 
us.” 

“And we’ll catch crabs,” said Harry, “just 
as if there was no war.” 

However, they didn’t do any crabbing. 
Few of the big Jersey blues entered the Cove, 
and they did not dare let down their lines 
in the open Creek. 

Monday night Harry stood watch alone. 
Tuesday it was Bob’s turn. Wednesday night 
it was Perry who did duty. Bob and Harry 
took the Gray Whale to the Cove and left her 
there. They rowed out in one of the punts. 

“So long, fellows,” Perry said wistfully. 

Early next morning Bob hurried to the 
Cove. He expected that he would find Perry 
shaky and nervous after a bad night. But 
Perry, after having had a morning dip, was 
dressing in the hold. 

96 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


“Where’s Harry?” he demanded cheerily. 
“I want to get home and eat.” 

“We can take her down alone,” said Bob. 
He looked curiously at the other boy. “How 
did things go?” 

“Oh,” said Perry, “I was scared for a 
while. Then I began to think that I was just 
as safe there as any place else. I lay down 
and fell asleep, and when I woke it was 
morning. I don’t think I’ll ever be afraid 
out here again.” 

Another day passed, and still they had not 
seen the Little Giant. Then, as they left the 
float Friday morning, the rival submarine 
appeared on the Creek. 

They watched her with fluttering hearts. 
She was bigger than the Gray Whale — much 
bigger. Quite a bit of her stuck out of water. 
She went past the float without paying a bit 
of attention to Bob and his crew. 

“Huh!” grunted Harry. “What a tub she 
is.” 


97 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Perry thought so, too. “Race her, Bob,” 
he urged. 

Harry dived down to his engine. Bob spun 
the wheel. The Gray Whale gathered speed. 
She moved out nearer the other boat. She 
came abreast. She started to go ahead. 

And then the Little Giant showed what it 
could do. Clumsily, loggily, it drew away 
from the Gray Whale. That big propeller 
seemed to churn the water into white foam. 
Five minutes later Reddy Farrant was look- 
ing back at them and waving his hands. 

The realization that Danny Dugan had the 
fastest boat came as a shock to Harry and to 
Bob. That meant that the Little Giant could 
run alongside any time she pleased, and that 
the enemy could try to board them any time 
it suited their fancy. 

Next day they saw the Little Giant again. 
She was again riding the surface. Bob gave 
the wheel to Perry and openly studied her 
through the glass. 


98 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


“It’s all right,” he called to Harry. “We 
can run away from her under water. She has 
so much bulk that she can’t do much once 
she’s submerged.” 

“She went pretty fast that day we saw her 
from the float,” Harry replied. 

Bob nodded. “I know. We go fast, too. 
You haven’t noticed our speed under water. 
I have. We’ll get away from her, under wa- 
ter. And another thing. So much of her is 
built above the water line that when she goes 
down, she goes far down. That means who- 
ever steers her will have to come up every 
five minutes or so to see where he is.” 

Again the Little Giant made no move to 
molest them. She seemed like a lazy lion in 
no hurry to slay. 

Had Danny’s boat showed fight that morn- 
ing the pulse of the Gray Whalers crew would 
have been quickened. Instead, the way the 
Little Giant passed them by led Harry to be- 
lieve that the fears he had felt had been fool- 


99 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


ishly apprehensive. Even Perry, now that 
he had mastered his fear of the lonely night, 
seemed to scorn Danny’s big craft. Why 
wouldn’t she attack? She had a bigger, 
stronger crew, hadn’t she? Something must 
be wrong, something that could not be seen, 
something that stopped the Little Giant from 
showing its teeth. 

As soon as the Gray Whale reached the 
Cove, her crew went ashore. Perry climbed 
to the lookout and scanned the Creek. 

“She’s not in sight,” he said. “We got in 
without her seeing us.” 

“Oh, come down,” Harry called. “She’s a 
frost. She has a big propeller, and that’s 
about all. Come down.” 

Perry came down. 

Bob, out of his turn, had stood watch the 
night before. It was Harry’s chance to-night. 
But he demurred. What was the use of 
watching for a boat that never bothered you? 
He’d be willing to bet his hat that the Little 


lOO 


THE WATCHER AT THE INLET 


Giant wouldn’t make a night attack all sum- 
mer. 

“Better watch to-night,” Bob said quietly. 

“Oh, let her go for one night,” Harry 
pleaded. “This is Saturday. Let’s go to the 
park and hear the music.” 

Bob shook his head. 

“I think it’s safe,” Perry broke in. 

Bob walked away. There was no chance 
to argue with two fellows who felt that way. 
He picked up the glass and climbed to the 
lookout. Five minutes later his voice rang 
sharply. 

“Come up, fellows. Easy, there. Don’t 
crowd. Keep your heads down.” 

Perry and Harry scrambled up the ladder. 
They crouched low on the platform. Bob 
handed Harry the glass. 

“Over there,” he said. “The other shore. 
Near those two trees. See it?” 

Harry stared a long time. “I see it,” he 
said. 

lOI 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Perry plucked at his sleeve. “What is it, 
Harry?” 

“The Little Giant. She’s over there low 
in the water. Her propeller isn’t turning. 
She’s watching the inlet.” 

Perry gave a whistle of dismay. “How 
about watching the Gray Whale to-night?” 
he demanded. 

Bob glanced sharply at Harry. That boy 
did not lower the glass. 

“I’ll watch,” he said. 


CHAPTER VII 

FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 

B ob and Perry left Harry at the Cove 
that night. Early in the afternoon 
they had found a letter at ]\^r. Hinkel- 
stedt’s float from Danny Dugan. It had in- 
formed them that the war would be aban- 
doned each Sunday. 

“Maybe he feels sure about capturing the 
Gray Whale to-night,” said Perry. “Maybe 
he thinks there wouldn’t be any more war left 
by to-morrow.” 

“There’ll be a whole lot left,” Harry 
scowlfed, “if he comes around bothering me.” 

When Bob and Perry rowed away from the 
Cove after dark they felt sure that there 
103 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


would be trouble before morning. But next 
day a smiling Harry met them when they pad- 
died in to take him down to the float. 

“Any trouble?” Bob demanded. 

“Not a lick,” Harry answered. “Two or 
three parties went up and down the Creek 
singing. About midnight things quieted 
down and I went to sleep.” 

However, even though Danny Dugan’s 
crowd had not bothered Harry, Bob was quite 
sure that the Little Giant was about due to 
engage in battle with the Gray Whale. They 
brought their boat down to Mr. Hinkelstedt’s 
float, and there they left it for the day. Mon- 
day morning, when they hurried back to 
guard their craft. Bob took the old boat 
builder aside. 

“Mr. Hinkelstedt,” he said, “if they try to 
come aboard us, how are we going to repel 
them? They’re bigger than our crowd.” 

“Throw them overboards,” was Mr. Hin- 
kelstedt’s reply. 


104 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


“But how are we going to do it?” 

Mr. Hinkelstedt showed him two ways of 
grasping an opponent. “Like that,” he said, 
“you throw them overboards.” 

Bj)b grinned. He went back to the others. 

“Look here,” he announced; “we ought to 
have some battle drills.” 

“How?” Harry asked eagerly. 

“We ought to be able to throw fellows 
overboard if they come to bother us. Let’s 
go out to the Cove and practice.” 

Harry dived for the boat. “Come on,” he 
cried. “This sounds good to me.” 

Half an hour later they anchored the Gray 
Whale at her mooring place. 

“You and Perry can attack,” Bob said to 
Harry. “Better get out of those clothes. I’m 
going to throw you overboard.” 

“You are not,” Harry announced confi- 
dently. Nevertheless, he stripped. So did 
Perry. They noticed that Bob had stripped, 
too. 


105 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“All right,” he called; “now you fellows 
come and get me.” 

Harry and Perry scrambled out to the slop- 
ing sides of the boat. Bob, standing with 
head and shoulders out of the hatch, prepared 
to resist the invasion. 

“Ready,” he called. 

Harry went for him with a joyous shout, 
and Perry followed. They clutched at their 
captain. Bob wriggled free. He caught 
Harry with a thigh grip and that young man 
went overboard, and as he went he carried 
Perry with him. 

The two boys swam back to the boat. Bob 
gave them a hand and helped them out. 

“That wasn’t an accident,” Harry grunted. 
“Where did you get that hold. Bob?” 

“Mr. Hinkelstedt showed it to me.” 

“Well, let us all see it.” 

Bob illustrated how the thing was done. 
After that, for the rest of the morning, they 
tossed eich other overboard with reckless 
106 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


abandon. They quite forgot the lookout on 
the roof of the shack. When they heard the 
noon whistles shrill, they rowed ashore, built 
a fire, and heated some canned beans. Harry 
was for starting more of the drill immediately 
after they had eaten, but Bob called a halt. 
He said they had had enough, and that it 
might be a wise thing to begin to scout the 
Creek in the hopes of finding where the 
Little Giant hid herself. Though Bob was 
sure that she was in the River, he decided to 
take no chances. 

Perry took the glass to the lookout. He 
reported the Creek clear of boats. They 
brought the Gray Whale out, keeping below 
the surface for the sake of safety. 

“Oh, just let’s drift,” Harry called. 
“What’s the use of poking our nose into every 
mud flat along the Creek?” 

“Does Danny know where we moor the 
Gray Whale?'' Bob asked quietly. 

Harry nodded. “Of course he does. 

107 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Didn’t we see the Little Giant watching the 
inlet?” 

“Do we know where Danny hides his 
boat?” 

“No.” 

“Don’t you see the advantage that gives 
them?” Bob insisted. 

Harry, after a moment, decided that search- 
ing was probably the best way to spend the 
afternoon. 

They brought their boat to the surface. 
They cruised her up as far as they thought 
Danny might go. They took the west bank 
and started down. 

Gently they kept running her along the 
fringe of salt marsh reeds. Harry, with a 
long pole, poked them to and fro in the 
hope of finding a hiding place. By five 
o’clock they had got down as far as Shelter 
Cove. 

“That’s enough for to-day,” Bob declared. 
“To-morrow we ought to get around the 
io8 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


Bend, and the next day ought to take us to 
the River. We’ll come up the other side.” 

“Suppose we don’t find her on the Creek?” 
Perry asked. 

Bob shrugged his shoulders. 

Next day their search carried them as far 
as the cinder path. Twenty-four hours later 
they reached the River. They had searched 
every foot of the west bank, but had not as 
much as caught a glimpse of the Little Giant. 

Next morning, starting at the River, they 
began to work their way up the east bank. 
That afternoon the Little Giant appeared and 
tried to come alongside. Despite their battle 
drills, the crew of the Gray Whale had no 
ardent desire to mix with the enemy. They 
sank their boat. An hour later they came to 
the surface, only to find that the Little Giant 
had been patiently following their ventilators. 

“Are they going to keep this up all day?” 
Perry asked as he once more filled the tank, 

“We’ll tire him out,” said Bob. 

109 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


He knew that he was in near the shore, and 
that there was no danger from other boats. 
He stayed under two hours. When he came 
to the surface the Little Giant had given up 
the game for that day, anyway. Danny Du- 
gan’s boat was not in sight. Whereupon the 
Gray Whale boldly turned her nose down- 
stream and began her search where she had 
left off. 

They found a Cove that was new to them. 
It was about a quarter of a mile below the 
Hinkelstedt float. They thought that they 
knew every foot of this Creek, yet here was 
a hidden place that was not on their private 
map. Harry got out the map and put the 
Cove where it belonged. They went over 
every foot of the place. Nowhere was there 
broken or bruised marsh grass. Plainly the 
Dugan crowd was not using this spot to hide. 

That evening, when they tied up their boat 
at the float, Mr. Hinkelstedt called them into 
his shop. 

no 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


“I saw everything what happened to-day,” 
he told them. “For longer than two hours 
that Danny Dugan kept alongside your ven- 
tilators. You need something that will let 
you laugh at that Danny Dugan, yes?” 

“Can you make it?” Harry demanded 
eagerly. 

The old builder nodded. He told them he 
would build them a battle hatch. 

Harry stared blankly. “What’s that?” he 
asked. 

“Wait!” Mr. Hinkelstedt said mysteriously. 
“Soon you will see.” 

They saw next day. When they brought 
the Gray Whale to the float after relieving 
Perry from his all-night watch at the Cove, 
Mr. Hinkelstedt brought a stout-looking cov- 
ering down to them. He took off the trap, 
and fitted on this newest arrangement. 

“Why,” said Harry, “that’s a grating.” 

“That is a battle hatch,” Mr. Hinkelstedt 
said severely. 


Ill 


GRAY, WHALE— WARSHIP 


It was built of two-inch wood. Seven stays 
ran lengthwise and the frame fitted snugly on 
the inside of the trap railing. After it was 
in place, Mr. Hinkelstedt locked it. Then 
he dropped the trap which, falling into place, 
covered all — the battle hatch and the trap 
opening, just as though there were no hatch 
there. 

“So!” said Mr. Hinkelstedt. “When that 
Danny Dugan comes alongside, you drop the 
battle hatch. What can he do? Come inside 
then? How, when the battle hatch holds him 
out? In there you can sit and laugh at him. 
And when you want to sink, you drop the 
trap and you sinks.” 

Harry danced on one leg. “Let’s go out 
and hunt for Danny, and invite him to fight.” 

Bob shook his head. “We’ll keep this 
secret. It will be a bigger surprise when they 
finally come at us.” 

They knew now that there was no chance 
of the Gray Whale being taken in open bat- 


112 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


tie. The hatch prevented that. And of that 
fact they speedily found reason to be glad. 
For logs, many of them, began to float down 
Big Giant River. Some found their way into 
the Creek. Bob had no great desire to run 
the Gray Whale headlong into one of these 
fallen giants of the forest while under water. 
The battle hatch, by allowing him to stay con- 
fidently on the surface, saved him from this 
danger. 

He heard vague reports that lumbermen 
were felling trees far up the Big Giant, and 
that the logs were floating down to a place 
far below where new docks were to be built. 
The reason for the logs didn’t interest Bob. 
He onlv knew that they were a source of 
danger, and he gave thanks that the next ap- 
proach of the Little Giant would not send 
him under water where he would have to take 
a chance of injuring his boat. 

The end of that week saw the finish of the 
search for the Little Giant’s hiding place. 


113 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Harry, who had worked as hard as any, once 
this game of blind man’s buff began, was posi- 
tive that Danny Dugan’s boat had no anchor- 
age in the Creek. 

“They couldn’t stay any place for a day,” 
he argued, “without leaving signs after them. 
Could they, now?” 

Bob shook his head. “I guess not.” 

“They’re out in the River,” Harry argued. 
Suddenly he clapped his hands. “But they 
won’t stay there. Bob. The logs will come 
down faster and faster as the work goes on. 
That will drive them out of the River. 
They’ll have to come into the Creek.” 

Bob jumped to his feet. “Of course they 
can’t stay there. How are we going to know 
when they come in? Tell me that.” 

But Harry shook his head. Perry, after a 
moment, started to speak. He said but a few 
words, and then stopped. 

“What’s that?” Bob demanded. 

“N-nothing,” Perry stammered. “I 
114 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


thought I had a plan. Maybe I have. I 
must think it over for a while. I’ll tell you 
in the morning.” 

Next day, however, neither Bob nor Harry 
asked for information. They had completely 
forgotten Perry. But Perry had not for- 
gotten. 

“I’ve thought it all out,” he said hesitat- 
ingly. 

Harry looked at him blankly. “What have 
you thought out?” 

“My plan about finding out when they 
came into the Creek.” 

“Oh!” Bob’s voice showed that he remem- 
bered. “What is it. Perry?” 

“I have a camera. It takes a four-by-five- 
inch picture. Couldn’t we send up a kite and 
attach the camera and snap pictures ” 

“Huh!” Harry grunted. “You mean take 
a picture of the land underneath? Big Giant 
River and Little Giant Creek?” 

“Yes.” 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


‘Why, everything on the film would be so 
small you couldn’t make out ” 

“Couldn’t we use a magnifying glass?” 
Perry argued. “We only want to know 
about the Dugan boat, and she’s pretty big. 
Couldn’t we use a magnifying glass to look 
at the picture after it was developed?” 

Harry’s grunt of disgust became a shout of 
joy. Couldn’t they? Of course they could. 
His active mind took fire at once. He would 
send up the kite ; he would operate the camera. 
Right here at the Shelter Cove Navy Yard 
they would establish a signal corps, and he’d 
be the corps. 

“We’ll let Perry run the camera,” Bob ob- 
served dryly. “He understands it.” 

Harry was not discouraged. “I’ll develop 
the pictures,” he volunteered. 

Bob looked at him suspiciously. “Did you 
ever do any developing?” 

“No; but I could learn, couldn’t I?” 

“Not at the Shelter Cove Navy Yard,” Bob 

ii6 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


laughed. “Go ahead, Perry. Take full 
charge.” 

“Can I give orders?” Perry asked. 

Bob nodded. 

“Then,” said Perry, “I order Harry to fix 
me a dark room at one end of the shack.” 

Harry grinned. “Getting fresh, aren’t 
you?” he asked. Yet he went to work with 
good will. Perry explained what was wanted^ 
and Harry saw that he got it. 

They left the Cove before noon. They 
were back at three o’clock. With them they 
brought a box kite, Perry’s camera, a devel- 
oping outfit, and several rolls of films. The 
dark room was equipped. The kite was 
rigged. 

“To-morrow,” said Bob, “we’ll begin to 
shoot at the Little Giant, and Perry will be 
the gunner.” 

But next day there was so little wind that 
the box kite, loaded with the added weight of 
the camera, could not fly. 


117 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


The following morning, though, there was 
what Harry called “a piping gale.” The 
evening before they had taken the films to 
the village drug store and had changed them 
for plates. Perry had suddenly awakened to 
the fact that if he used films, he would have 
to haul in the kite after taking a snap, wind 
the film spool, and then send the kite up 
again. With plates, as each snap was taken, 
the plate could be taken out. Thus, while 
the kite was in the air, the first plate could 
be developed and a print made. 

So, with this lively breeze blowing, they 
sent up the camera and the kite. Perry had 
worked a hole through the little catch that 
clicked the shutter. Through this hole he 
had run a strong linen cord. Now, as the kite 
went up, he played out his linen line. When 
he wanted a picture, he would draw the line 
smartly. He had a secret fear that perhaps 
this wouldn’t work, but he said nothing to 
Harry or to Bob. He was haunted, too, with 

ii8 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


the knowledge that it might be easy to snap 
the shutter three or four times and thus ruin 
his plates. 

The kite went up two hundred feet. Harry 
was tending to that end of the game. The 
wind took it westward out over the River. 

“Steady her,” Perry called. 

Harry held the kite cord. It tightened. 
He felt the pull of the flying thing. And 
then Perry sharply jerked his linen line. 

“Haul in,” he called. 

The kite came in. Perry was careful to see 
that his linen line had lots of slack, for he did 
not want to click the shutter again. At last 
the kite lay at their feet. Perry took the 
camera and darted into the dark room. 

Forty: minutes later he came out with the 
plate in his hand. 

“How is she?” Harry cried. 

“She needs a whole lot more washing,” 
Perry answered ; “but maybe I can get a print 
from her.” 


119 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


The print came, not any too clear, but still 
discernible. They carried it into the sun- 
light, Bob produced a magnifying glass. 
They put the print under the glass. 

There was the Big Giant River. They 
could see the logs on her surface, a rowboat 
or two tied up along the bank, the house and 
the float of the Big Giant Boat Club. Every- 
thing stood out clearly. 

“Dugan’s boat isn’t there,” said Bob. 

“No,” cried Harry, “but as soon as she ap- 
pears we’ll find her with the camera.” 

Bob had been intently studying the picture. 
“We haven’t enough of the river here,” he 
said. “See, this picture does not go down as 
far as the Creek, Try her again. Perry. Try 
to get a view of where the Creek and the 
River meet. I think that’s about where Danny 
would hide his boat.” 

Perry tried again, and yet again. His sec- 
ond trial brought down a fogged plate, and 
he never learned what was wrong with his 


120 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


third attempt. But when the images stood 
out from the fourth plate, he gave a shout of 
delight. He had caught the River and the 
Creek — not much, to be sure, but he had 
caught it. 

And, as they later examined the print un- 
der the magnifying glass, they saw the Little 
Giant snugly riding at anchor in a sheltered 
spot not far from the Creek. 

“The logs will soon drive her out of that^” 
Harry announced confidently. 

Daily the tide of logs increased, and daily 
they sent up the camera and the kite. Finally, 
for two afternoons running, the Little Giant 
was not at her anchoring grounds. 

“She’s in the Creek,” Harry cried excitedly. 
“Can’t you get a view of the Creek, Perry?” 

“Not until there’s a south wind,” Perry 
answered. “The kite must carry down toward 
the Creek.” 

There was a south wind the following Sun- 
day, and the three chums watched it gently 


I2I 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


bend the tree tops. Oh, if only this wasn’t 
Sunday! But Monday they awakened to find 
the south wind still there. They hastened to 
the float, got the Gray Whale under way, and 
kept her going at full speed until they were 
through the inlet and inside the Cove. 

For a while misfortune followed at Perry’s 
heels. Seven times he sent up plates, and 
seven times he hauled in failures. The morn- 
ing wore away. At noon they ate their sand- 
wiches, and Bob succeeded in producing a 
passable cup of coffee. After the meal they 
went back to their labors. Harry sent the kite 
up. She moved off gently toward where the 
Creek and the River met. 

“Only about one hundred and fifty feet,” 
Perry told Harry. 

Twenty minutes later Perry took his snap. 
This time he was an hour in the shack. When 
he came out he held the plate closely, as 
though he feared he might drop it. 

“I don’t know what’s on here,” he cried. 


12a 


FINDING THE LITTLE GIANT 


“She’s good and sharp, though. Where’s that 
printing frame, Harry?” 

Five minutes later they studied the print 
under the glass. There, in the Cove that they 
had discovered on the east side of the Creek, 
one-quarter of a mile from the Hinkelstedt 
float, was the Little Giant. 

Harry gave a cheer. “We can go after her 
now, can’t we. Bob?” 

The leader nodded. 

“When?” came Perry’s voice. 

“Tp-night,” said Bob. “To-night we’ll go 
down and capture the Little Giant.’’' 


CHAPTER VIII 

A NIGHT ATTACK 

T hey brought the Gray Whale down 
to the Hinkelstedt float and left it 
there while they went to supper. 
Their movements were as calm and as indif- 
ferent as though the scent of battle was not 
in their nostrils. 

iBut, when they began to come back shortly 
after seven o’clock, there was a suppressed 
excitement about them. Mr. Hinkelstedt 
looked them over curiously. They told him 
nothing about their plans. They put away 
from the float, turned upstream, and appar- 
ently started for Shelter Cove. 

As soon as they passed the Bend, however. 


124 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


they drew into the marsh grass on the west 
bank. There they waited for darkness. 

“Suppose there’s anybody minding the Lit- 
tle Giant?" Harry asked. 

“He’ll have to be taken care of,” said Bob. 

“Thrown overboard?” 

“Yes.” 

Perry whistled softly and stared across the 
restless water. “I guess that puts it up to me,” 
he said at last. “Bob will be busy at the 
wheel, and Harry’ll be at the machinery. I’ll 
be the only one not busy.” 

“But suppose it’s Farrant,” Harry cried. 
“You couldn’t handle him, could you?” 

“I could try,” said Perry. “I’d have an 
advantage. I’d know who I was going after, 
but he wouldn’t know who was after him or 
how many.” 

Bob nodded. “That’s good reasoning. 
Perry. And if you meet him ” 

“Yes?” said Perry. 

“Good luck to you,” said Bob. “You’re 
125 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


having all the honors of this. Your plan finds 
the Little Giant, and now you have a chance 
to do the actual capturing.” 

“I’d surrender the chance for two cents,” 
Perry told him candidly. 

Never, it seemed to the boys, had the dark- 
ness settled so slowly. But at last the stars 
winked at them, and the shore lines became 
black. They brought out the Gray Whale. 

“No lights,” Bob warned. “No noise, 
either.” 

They kept close to the bank so as to avoid 
the danger of being sighted by any boats that 
might be passing up or down the Creek. 
Harry saw to it that his motor made but little 
noise. Their boat moved slowly. 

“We’re at the cinder path,” Harry whis- 
pered. 

Bob strained his eyes. Yes, there was the 
landmark that denoted the place where they 
anchored their punts. Then Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt’s float must be almost directly across. 

126 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


“Can you give me a little more speed?” 
Bob whispered to Harry. “We want to get 
across as soon as possible.” 

Harry cautiously increased the speed. A 
moment later there came a shock that sent a 
shudder through the boat. 

“Stop it!” Bob called. 

Harry stopped the motor. Something 
black floated alongside the Gray Whale. 
Perry put out his hand and touched it. 

“A log,” he called to Bob. 

This time, when they started the boat again, 
they kept the speed low, for they had no de- 
sire to run against the point end of any of 
these hidden dangers. Five minutes later 
Bob thought they must be near the other 
shore. He ordered the motor shut off. After 
that they crouched at the trap opening and 
peered into the darkness. And at length, so 
gradual that they scarcely noticed it grow into 
their vision, they became aware of the shore 
line. 


127 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Bob turned the propeller. The Gray 
Whale’s nose turned downstream. 

“No noise, now,” Bob warned again. 

They knew that the hiding place was now 
but one-quarter of a mile below. Five minutes 
later Bob had the motor stopped again. The 
tide was running out, and the current would 
carry them. He figured this would be safer, 
for the motor might begin to hum loudly at 
any moment, whereas the tide made no sound. 

His heart was beating loudly. He could 
hear Harry and Perry breathing. 

“Keep a sharp eye,” he whispered. 

Perry, the better to see, poked his head up 
through the trap. A moment later his voice 
came to them with a hissing sound, as though 
he spoke through his teeth: 

“I hear voices. Bob.” 

“Where?” whispered the leader. 

Perry ducked his head. “Boat party,” he 
told them. “They have a light. They’re in 
at the reeds, bobbing for eels.” 

128 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


“Can they see us?” Bob demanded. 

“I don’t think we’ll float that close,” said 
Perry, 

Bob, however, carefully swung the pro- 
peller over. They all heard the voices now 
— one low and deep, the other thin and pip- 
ing. The sound came nearer and nearer until 
it seemed to drum in their ears. They held 
their breaths. Then the noise began to go 
astern, and they knew that they were safely 
past. 

But they had come far out into the stream. 
Bob pointed her nose inshore. 

“You’ll have to give me a little of that 
motor,” he explained to Perry, “We’re get- 
ting close to the Big Giant. I don’t want to 
be carried there.” 

Harry cautiously started the motor. Then 
he shut it. Then he started it. In this way 
they edged their way back to the shore. 

The Creek now seemed full of logs, proof 
that they were almost at its junction with the 


129 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


River. They got the Gray Whale right up 
against the reeds. Then they once more 
allowed her to drift. 

And, less than a minute later, they saw an- 
other lantern. They caught only a glimpse 
of it, as though it were a fire-fly. But it was 
low on the water and back among the reeds. 
They heard, too, the low, cautious tones of a 
voice. They knew, without being told, that 
they had drifted past the Little Giant’s hiding 
place, and that Danny and his crew were with 
their boat. 

The darkness shut in around them once 
more. They dared not drop their anchor. 
The splash might alarm the enemy. Harry 
took an oar from the hold. Reaching over, 
he dug it into the soft mud of the bottom. It 
held. The Gray Whale swung around with 
her nose pointed upstream. 

“You fellows will have to take turns hold- 
ing this,” he said. “It’s no joke.” 

Five minutes later Bob took the oar and 
130 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


held the boat. Afterwards Perry took a turn. 
Still later Bob went back to the task again. 
Then Harry once more grasped the oar. All 
the while they watched the Creek above them, 
waiting for Danny Dugan and his crew to 
depart. 

“Maybe they’ll take the boat with them,” 
Harry murmured. 

Bob grunted. “We’ll be lucky if they don’t 
see us,” he said. 

“We’re all right,” Harry argued in an 
undertone. “We’re ” 

“Ssh!” came from Perry. 

They heard the sound of oars. Next they 
saw a black shape come out from the weeds. 
The shape stopped. 

“Wait a minute,” Danny Dugan’s voice 
said. “We’ll see if the coast is clear.” 

Harry, holding the oar that had been 
rammed into the mud, felt the strain pinch 
his muscles. But he dared not move. He 
held his breath, and when he did breathe the 
131 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


air left his lungs through his open mouth. 
Would they never go away? 

“Nobody here, Danny,” came Farrant’s 
voice. 

“Always be on the safe side,” Danny an- 
swered. “Oars, men.” 

The black shape moved away. It grew 
fainter and more uncertain, and at last was 
lost. The Little Giant was at their mercy. 

But was she? Doubts came to Harry. 
They had not heard Davis’s voice. Was he 
in that boat that had passed, or had he been 
left behind to guard the submarine? 

“We’ll never learn staying here,” said Bob. 

It was necessary, now that they had to go 
a definite course, that they have power. 
Harry started the propeller kicking. They 
forged ahead. Perry kept parting the reeds 
and looking for a channel. 

It seemed that they would never find the 
inlet to this hiding place. Twice they 
thought they had what they wanted, and twice 


132 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


they ran ahead and poked the Gray Whale’s 
nose into shallow mud. But on the third trial 
they fared better. Perry’s pole failed to find 
reeds ahead, and they sent the Gray Whale 
through a path that ended in a clear space of 
open water. 

“See anything?” Bob whispered. 

“No,” Perry answered. “Well have to 
feel around for her.” 

They started to go back and forth across 
the clear space. In a few minutes they 
bumped into something that suddenly loomed 
alongside. At the same moment Perry came 
up from the hold and jumped out into the 
darkness. 

The Gray Whale, after that bump, backed 
away. Bob and Harry waited. After a 
silence a soft call came to them : 

“Euuuu-who!” 

It was the call of their crowd. Harry an- 
swered in the same low voice. 

“She’s unguarded,” Perry told them. “No- 


133 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


body here. I’m on board. Come for my 
voice.” 

So, in the blackness, they again bumped 
into the Little Giant. The two boats were 
steadied and held together. 

“Hurry!” called Bob. 

Harry sprang to the deck of the rival sub- 
marine. Quickly he bored a large screw hook 
a few inches into her top deck. Bob threw 
him a stout rope, and he fastened this to the 
hook. Then he and Perry came aboard the 
Gray Whale, and fastened the other end of 
the rope to a hook in their after deck. 

“Now,” cried Harry, “let’s get out of here. 
Speed this time. Bob; speed.” 

“Speed!” said Bob. “Start her, Harry.” 

The motor sang. The propeller churned. 
The Gray Whale wobbled ahead. The line 
tightened. They felt their speed slacken as 
the Little Giant followed them. 

“We have her!” cried Harry. 

“Right up to the Cove,” called Perry with 


134 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


a giggle. “Won’t they rub their eyes to- 
morrow!” 

They felt the Little Giant hang back an 
instant, as though she had momentarily 
stopped. 

“What’s wrong?” Harry demanded. 

They knew a second later. Behind them a 
bell clanged loudly. 

“Speed!” cried Bob. “Give me speed, 
Harry.” 

Harry tried to obey the command, but the 
motor was already doing her best. 

“What happened ?” he gasped. “That noise 
will wake the whole Creek. Did you ever 
hear a louder gong? What happened. 
Bob?” 

“We’re idiots,” the leader cried. “Why 
didn’t we examine her? They had a big gong 
bell fitted up ashore, and a string ran from 
the Little Giant to the bell. Anybody who 
pulled the boat out would ring the bell. 
See it?” 


135 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Harry saw, but it was now too late. The 
alarm had sounded. 

Over across the Creek, where the Dugan 
float should be, they saw a lantern flash. They 
saw, too, forms running about. Next the 
light came bobbing toward them across the 
water. 

“They’re coming in a boat,” Harry called. 
“Get to the other side of the Creek, Bob. 
They won’t hear the motor with their oars 
grinding in the locks.” 

But Danny had more brains than Harry had 
given him credit for. They heard his voice: 

“Stop rowing, fellows.” He wasn’t using 
naval language now. “Maybe we’ll hear 
them.” 

Harry dived for his motor and shut it off. 
He was too late. 

“Over there,” Danny cried excitedly. 
“They’re over that way.” 

The lights came nearer. Harry, in des- 
peration, started the propeller again. 

136 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


“We’d run away from these fellows if the 
tide was with us,” he grunted. 

But the tide was against them, and 
besides they were loaded with the dead 
weight of the other boat. They made sorry 
progress. 

For the next quarter of an hour it was hide 
and seek on Little Giant Creek. Danny 
Dugan’s crew would stop rowing and Harry 
would stop the engines. But gradually the 
rowboat came closing in. 

“No use,” said Bob. “Cut the Little Giant 
adrift, Perry.” 

Perry sliced the rope. The Gray Whale, 
released of her tow, jumped ahead. A few 
minutes later they heard excited voices be- 
hind them. 

“They’ve found her,” said Harry in a voice 
of disgust. 

“Listen!” said Bob. 

The cries died away. They had stopped 
their machinery and could hear the slightest 

137 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


sound. And what next came to their ears was 
the splash of oars. 

“They’re after us,” said Bob. “I thought 
so.” 

“But the Little Giant^’’ cried Harry. 
“What of her?” 

“Danny has put one fellow aboard. He 
and the other chap — ^probably Farrant — are 
after us.” 

“We’ll give them all they want,” Harry 
boasted. “Go back toward them. Bob.” 

The leader refused. He pointed out that 
it was a dark night and that it might be dan- 
gerous to get thrown overboard out here in 
the open Creek. 

“We’ll run for it,” he said. 

They ran ; but whenever they stopped their 
engine, there was the sound of oars behind 
them. At last there could be no mistaking the 
fact that Danny’s rowboat was gaining. 

“Drop the battle hatch,” said Bob quietly. 

The engine was stopped. Now, if the 
138 


A NIGHT ATTACK 


enemy came to them, they were safe. But 
Bob was hopeful that Danny might not dis- 
cover them in the darkness. A night fight 
on Little Giant Creek did not appeal to him 
even with the battle hatch down. For Danny’s 
crew, finding the hatch, would smash at it, 
rules or no rules, and it would be easy for 
Harry to run the oar up through the gratings 
and push the attacking party overboard. To- 
night the advantage lay with the Gray Whale, 
but Bob did not want a fight. He would pre- 
fer to take his chances in daylight. 

They heard Danny’s boat go past. Mean- 
while the tide carried them downstream. 
Harry was for making another run to the 
Cove and another assault on the Little Giant. 

“We’ve had enough for one night,” said 
Bob. 

“Plenty,” Perry agreed hastily. 

So, alternately going up the Creek and then 
drifting down, they passed the next two hours. 
At the end of that time they saw Danny’s boat 


139 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


tie up at the Dugan float, the lantern still 
winking in the darkness. 

Then they steered a course for Shelter 
Cove. After they had turned the Bend they 
lighted the bicycle lamp. By its rays they 
found the inlet and came to the black safety 
of the Cove. They juggled the Gray Whale 
around to the mooring place. 

“Where’s the punt?” Harry called. 
“Didn’t we leave a punt here?” 

“We did,” Bob answered. 

Harry played the light over the water. 
“The boat’s gone,” he called excitedly. 

Bob and Perry hurried forward and helped 
him search. Finally they gave up. The punt 
was gone. 

“Danny Dugan’s been here,” said Bob. 


CHAPTER IX 

THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 

T hat missing punt was akin to a ca- 
lamity. It brought to the boys a 
realization of two facts; first, that 
they would have to hide the other two punts 
so that they could not be captured, and sec- 
ond, that they were not the only Creek voy- 
agers who could go off on an expedition of 
plunder. 

It was Bob’s night to stand watch. They 
all had a feeling that Danny’s crew, now 
thoroughly aroused, would come out later and 
try to get the Gray Whale itself. Harry 
and Perry offered to stay with Bob, but the 
leader refused their help. They had stood 
141 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


their watches alone; he would stand his. If 
Danny Dugan came it would be the fortunes 
of war. 

But Danny did not come, and next day they 
brought the Gray Whale down to Mr. Hin- 
kelstedt’s float and told him the story of last 
night’s happenings. 

“So!” said the old builder. “What foolish 
young mens. You have your searchlight and 
your battles hatches. Why did you not think 
that Danny would invent some protections?” 

“We didn’t give that a thought,” Harry 
explained. 

“Ach! Do you think you have all the 
brains on the Creek?” 

“Not now,” Perry answered. 

That answer was true. The more Bob and 
his chums thought over the attempt to capture 
the Little Giant, the more they secretly ad- 
mired the way Danny Dugan had protected 
her. It was so simple! And it had worked 
so well. 


142 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


They wanted to recapture their punt. Mr. 
Hinkelstedt confessed that he could not ad- 
vise them. Danny Dugan had her, and 
Danny had probably hidden her. 

“It is best,” the builder advised, “that you 
watch your other boats.” 

Now that the first skirmish had been 
fought, the Little Giant became a mighty 
cocky boat. She paraded the Creek that af- 
ternoon, and Farrant, declining to longer 
maintain discipline even with his captain on 
board, laughed and jeered each time he passed 
the Hinkelstedt float. Later, just to show 
that they were not daunted, the Gray Whale 
went forth and sailed about. Twice they 
passed the Dugan float, and each time Clara 
Dugan, who was overhauling her canoe, 
waved them a greeting. 

“That will be a dangerous boat this sum- 
mer,” said Bob. 

Harry laughed. “Not for Clara. She can 
manage them better than any fellow on the 
Creek.” 


143 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“I’m thinking of the logs,” said Bob. 
“They’re coming down faster, and they’re be- 
ginning to jam where the Creek joins the 
River.” 

The logs, in fact, were coming down so 
thick and fast that a murmur of complaint 
was running along from boat club to boat 
club. When the tide was at its height, these 
forest monsters practically owned the river. 
At the ebb and the flood tides, the logs would 
settle at certain parts. One point w'here this 
happened was the junction of the Big Giant 
and the Little Giant. The logs, jammed 
and ponderous, would block all small 
boat navigation until the next tide moved 
them. 

Sunday came, and the war ended for 
twenty-four hours. The chums, that after- 
noon, walked down to the railroad bridge and 
watched another log jam. Soon Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt joined them. 

“Farther and farther up the Creek the logs 


144 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


will come,” he said. “Suppose the Gray 
Whale must go under them. What then? 
How will you do it?” 

“Why,” said Harry, “we’ll submerge her 
and go under, that’s all.” 

“Foolish!” said Mr. Hinkelstedt scornfully. 
“Your ventilators are above the waters when 
you are down deepest. How will you go un- 
der when your ventilators will be knocking 
against the logs?” 

Bob shook his head. “I hadn’t thought of 
that.” Then his face brightened. “Look 
here, Mr. Hinkelstedt. We can last about 
three hours on the air we take down with us. 
Those ventilators are fixed so that we can 
shove them farther out. Can’t they be fixed 
so that we can draw them in? Take them in 
two feet, say, and screw a cap on the pipe from 
the inside. That will keep water from com- 
ing in. Then we can sail under anything on 
the Creek.” 

“There is a heads for you,” the builder ex- 


145 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


claimed. “He is not like Harry, all the times 
talking. He thinks.” 

“Huh!” grunted Harry. “Anybody can 
think. But it takes an orator to be a talker.” 

Nevertheless, he squeezed Bob’s arm. 
And next day, when they went to the float, he 
was the first to urge Mr. Hinkelstedt to fix 
the ventilators so that they could be drawn 
in. 

Perry, that day, came to Bob and Harry 
with a troubled frown. “I have a hunch 
we’re in for trouble,” he explained. “Have 
you seen the Little Giant to-day?” 

Bob shook his head. 

“I haven’t,” said Harry. 

“She hasn’t been out,” said Perry. “Satur- 
day she paraded the Creek letting us know 
who was boss. Now she stops. Why? She’s 
trying to throw us off our guard, make us be- 
lieve that everything has quieted down again. 
Then, when we relax our vigilance, down 
she’ll come and scoop us. Danny’s been in- 
146 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


side the Cove. He had a chance to look it 
over. I’ll het he’s only w^aiting for a dark 
night to come after our boat.” 

Harry whistled. “That sounds right, Boh, 
doesn’t it? But we have a man guarding her 
every night, haven’t we?” 

“Certainly,” Perry answered. “But sup- 
pose I’m inside with the battle hatch down. 
I laugh and say ‘Come ahead and get me.’ 
What do they do? They’re three to one. 
They tie a rope to the Gray Whale and tow 
her out, and I’m in the hold and can’t come 
out and tackle the three of them. Can I?” 

“Not much,” said Bob. He scratched his 
chin. “Thunder! Every time we think we 
have things fixed right, something else turns 
up.” 

Harry stared hard at his finger nails. “I 
think Perry’s right,” he said. “If they’re 
going to attack, they’ll come after us soon. 
Suppose we get permission from our fathers 
to camp at the Cove for the rest of the week.” 

147 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“Then we can watch her night and day,” 
Perry cried. 

That night, when they met at eight o’clock 
on Mr. Hinkelstedt’s float, each boy bore joy- 
ful news. They could go camping. 

“Now,” said Harry, “let Danny come 
after us. We’ll give him the bump of his 
life.” 

Perry grinned. “That’s us,” he said. 

Lightning flashed in the east, and there were 
faint rumblings of thunder. They hung a 
light to signify that they would not guard 
the Gray Whale, and went to their homes. 
About midnight Harry awoke and heard the 
rain pounding on the roof. He thanked his 
stars that he was in his bed and not at Shel- 
ter Cove. 

They were busy next morning carrying 
stores to the Cove. Butter, flour, sugar, 
canned beans, condensed milk, crackers, 
cheese — ^what a mass of material they took 
with them! About two o’clock in the after- 
148 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


noon everything was ship shape. As Harry 
said, they were ready to stand a siege. 

They sent up the camera and caught pic- 
tures of the Creek. There was the Little Giant 
in her hiding place. 

“Huh!” said Harry. “Fat chance to attack 
them after one failure. Let’s get something 
to eat.” 

They passed two glorious days, and never 
once saw the Little Giant. Now that Danny 
Dugan knew that they were at the Cove, they 
quit all secrecy. They crabbed openly in the 
Creek, and they ate big, luscious Jersey Blues 
until, as Harry said, be was ashamed to look a 
crab in the face. 

The third day came. In the morning they 
took the Gray Whale down to Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt’s float to get a supply of new batteries. 
They started back for the Cove. On their 
way they passed the Little Giant. It was the 
first time they had seen the enemy since Satur- 
day. 


149 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Farrant grinned at them. “Nice little boat 
you have there,” he called. 

“Let up, Farrant,” Danny ordered sharply. 

Farrant said nothing more. The Gray 
Whale went ahead and entered Shelter Cove. 

“What do you know about that?” Harry 
asked. 

“About what?” 

“About Danny telling Farrant to keep still. 
Why should he do that?” 

“I don’t know,” Perry answered. 

“Well, I do,” said Harry. “Suppose those 
fellows had their minds made up to attack 
us — say to-night. They’d expect to win. 
They pass us on the Creek. Farrant, know- 
ing what was about to happen says something 
about a nice little boat. Teasing us, you 
know; sort of saying to himself nice little 
boat, but we’re going to take it from you. 
Then Danny, afraid we’ll read between the 
lines, orders Farrant to ” 

“Thunder!” cried Bob. “You have a better 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


head than any of us. The attack will come 
to-night.” 

“How do you know?” Perry insisted. 

Bob shrugged his shoulders. “I feel it,” he 
said. 

So they made ready for the enemy. After 
dinner they sat as a board of strategy — at 
least, that was the name Harry gave the gath- 
ering. 

“If they can come in,” Bob said, “and just 
row up to the Gray Whale and make a fight 
for it, they may succeed.” 

“Even with the bicycle lamp shining on 
them?” 

“They’d simply have to row toward the 
lamp,” Bob explained, “in order to find the 
Gray Whale." 

“But suppose we put the lamp some place 
else?” Harry asked. 

“That’s it,” Perry cried. “Let one of us 
stay ashore in the shack. If trouble starts he 
can manipulate the light.” 

151 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“But how would that help the Gray 
Whale?” Bob asked. “As soon as they found 
the light did not come from the boat, they’d 
search for her, wouldn’t they? And then 
there’d only be two of us on board to repel 
the invaders.” 

“But,” Perry insisted, “if they came toward 
the light and ran into the mud ” 

“Yah!” Harry yelled. “That’s the answer, 
Perry.” 

Perry seemed pleased. “About coming 
toward the lamp?” 

“No; not exactly that. Nobody would go 
for a light in the shack. It’s too far inshore. 
It wouldn’t fool a baby. But suppose we put a 
box in the reeds where the water is shallow. 
Take the ruby lamp Perry uses in the dark 
room, light it, and put it in the box. If 
Danny Dugan’s crowd comes in through the 
inlet they’ll be fooled.” 

“How?” Bob asked. 

“How?” Harry giggled. “Don’t you see 
152 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


it, Bob? They wouldn’t see the lamp. They’d 
see the reflection that came up from the box. 
They’d think we had the trap open and a 
light burning in the hold of the Gray Whale. 
They’d start for the light, and they’d go 
aground.” 

“With the Little Giant?*' Perry demanded. 

Bob shook his head. “They wouldn’t bring 
the Little Giant in here. They’d come in 
with two or three punts. Maybe we could 
capture them.” 

“Let’s get to work,” cried Harry. 

They took the Gray Whale far into the 
reeds at the back of the Cove and there hid 
it. Then they found an empty box that had 
held crackers. They took the lamp out of 
the ruby box and fastened it to the bottom 
of the lure. It took them an hour to find a 
place where they could locate the false light. 
Then, their labors accomplished, they waited 
for the coming of darkness. 

As soon as the stars came out, they lighted 

153 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


the lamp. They rowed off a bit and looked 
at it. There, on the water, was a soft 
glow that seemed to come from the water 
itself. 

“It will fool them,” Harry exulted. 
“They’ll run aground as sure as fate. Here’s 
where Danny Dugan meets his Waterloo.” 

They decided to take turns standing watch. 
They would all stay in the shack. Once the 
enemy arrived, two of them as an attacking 
force could get into one of their punts. 
While the enemy, aground, struggled to get 
off, the bicycle lamp would be flashed on 
them by the fellow who remained at the 
shack. 

“And whichever two of us go off in the 
punt,” Bob said, “can attack Danny and his 
crew from the rear. There’ll be warm work 
to-night.” 

“If they come,” Perry reminded his leader. 

“They’ll come,” Harry said confidently. 

It was Perry’s watch from ten o’clock until 
154 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


midnight. Bob and Harry stretched off for 
a sleep. Perry stood at the window looking 
out at the shadows of the Cove. 

It would have been just as well, however, 
had they not divided the night into watches, 
for all three boys were too excited to sleep. 
Harry, after half an hour of restless squirm- 
ing, gave up in disgust and went over to the 
window and watched with Perry. Bob stuck 
it out ten minutes longer. He sighed and 
joined his chums. 

“Too hot to sleep, anyway,” he explained. 

But they all knew that it was not the heat 
that kept him awake. They knew that he ex- 
pected battle. And a few moments after 
eleven o’clock, they heard the muffled sound 
of oars. 

“They’re coming,” Perry whispered. 

“Get the bicycle lamp ready,” Bob ordered 
softly. 

“It is lighted,” Perry answered. “I have it 
in the rear of the shack.” 


155 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“Get it,” said Bob. “Keep it under your 
cap. Don’t flash it until I tell you.” 

There could be no doubt, after a moment, 
but that boats were coming through the inlet. 
How many boats there were they could not 
tell. Two or three, maybe. 

Soon the sound grew plainer. The boats 
were now in the Cove. 

“Watch them go for that light,” Harry 
whispered excitedly. 

And for the light the boats turned their noses. 
Bob, Harry and Perry held their breaths. 
Would Danny Dugan’s crowd never stop row- 
ing? Would they never reach the lure? 

“Ready with the light,” came Bob’s voice. 
^‘I saw a shadow on the water. They’re get- 
ting near it.” 

Suddenly a low cry came from the Cove. 
Then came another. 

“Flash it,” Bob called. “They’re aground. 
Come on, Harry. Start yelling. Perry. Try 
to drown the sound of our oars.” 

156 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


Bob ran from the shack. As he and Harry 
tumbled into their punt, the bicycle lamp sent 
a flashing ray of light across the darkness. It 
showed three punts aground in the reeds. 
Danny was in one boat, Farrant in another 
and Bill Davis manned a third. 

The enemy, as Bob could see, was in con- 
fusion. They had jammed their oars into the 
mud and were trying to get their punts free. 
The light that flashed on them told them that 
they were in for trouble. 

From the shack came Perry’s voice shout- 
ing and hurrahing. The sound increased the 
confusion of Danny Dugan’s warriors. 

“Come on, Harry,” Bob cried. “Keep 
out of the light! Make things warm for 
them!” 

They rowed furiously across the Cove. As 
they neared the light Harry drew in his oar. 

“Here’s where Farrant gets his,” he grunt- 
ed. He gave a yell and thrust the oar. It 
popped against Farrant’s chest, and that young 


157 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


warrior went over into the reeds with a 
splash. 

“Get Davis,” Bob yelled. 

And a moment later Davis had been spilled 
from his boat. 

All the while Perry kept up a lusty yelling. 
The invaders, demoralized, thought only of 
safety. 

“Put Danny Dugan overboard,” cried 
Harry. 

But Danny Dugan had had enough of war- 
fare for one night. He managed to free his 
boat from the mud. 

“Keep away from me,” he warned. “I’ll 
jab you with the oar.” 

Farrant and Davis had grasped their lead- 
er’s punt. Dripping and sputtering, they 
climbed laboriously aboard. Once in the boat 
they each took an oar and started to flee. The 
light from the bicycle lamp followed them. 
Harry and Bob slapped their oars in the wa- 
ter as though they were in pursuit. 

158 


THE BATTLE OF SHELTER COVE 


“Get them,” they kept yelling. “Get them.” 

And, with that cry ringing in their ears, 
and with the light still following them, the 
crew of the Little Giant went through the 
inlet in panic, and out to the safety of the 
open Creek. 

Five minutes later the victors took stock 
of their spoils. They got the two punts off 
the mud and took them to the bank in front 
of the shack. One of the boats was freshly 
painted, but they recognized it as the punt 
that Danny Dugan had captured at the Cove 
the week before. 

“Well,” Harry grinned, “they didn’t stay 
long, did they?” 

All that night they sat up, watching for the 
enemy to return. The enemy, however, had 
had enough. When daylight broke, the 
chums stirred themselves sleepily. Perry went 
outside and built a fire and began to prepare 
coffee. Harry took a sheet of paper and a 
pencil. 


159 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“What was it Commodore Perry wrote 
about the battle of Lake Erie?” he demanded. 
“Oh, I know.” He wet the pencil and bent 
over the paper. 

Sometime later he tacked his message to the 
door of the shack. It read: 

We have met the enemy and they are 
ours — two punts, four oars and Danny 
Dugan’s goat. 


CHAPTER X 


WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED 


F ollowing the battle of shelter 
Cove, the chums felt that they would 
be safe for a long time. The very un- 
expectedness of what had happened to Danny 
Dugan’s followers would rob them of any de- 
sire to again invade the Cove in a hurry. 
Likewise, Bob and his friends had no desire to 
make another raid on the Little Giant. It 
looked as though there would be peace for 
many, many days. 

After breakfast they all went to sleep. It 
was early afternoon before they awoke. 

“Send up the kite,” Harry advised. “I’ll bet 
we have Danny’s navy so scared that they 

i6i 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


picked out another hiding place for the Little 
Giant” 

They sent up the camera, snapped it and 
brought it down. When the plate had been 
developed and a print had been made, they 
saw that the Little Giant had quit her Creek 
hiding place. A later plate showed that she 
was not in the River. Evidently the rival boat 
had found a new place to shelter itself. 

“Believe me,” said Harry, “I am glad. I’m 
getting pretty sick of watching, and waiting, 
and night attacks, and all that. And the cat- 
fish are getting pretty big up the river, too — 
big, fresh water cats.” 

Far up above Shelter Cove the salt water of 
the Creek became fresh. Next morning, with 
the fresh coolness of the day still over the land, 
they ran the Gray Whale up the Creek. Using 
worms as bait, they dropped their lines into the 
stream. 

Harry had spoken truly. The fish were big. 
Likewise, they were hungry. One by one they 
162 


WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED 


came over the side. The boys had learned 
sportsmanship. They did not allow their 
catch to suffer and to die slowly. Each fish 
was killed as it flopped into the boat. And 
when at last they had as many as they 
would eat that day and the next, they hoist- 
ed the anchor and steered for the Cove. 
There the tough outer skin was stripped 
from the cats, and they went merrily into the 
frying pan. 

What a glorious meal it was ! They had the 
hunger of healthy, outdoors boys, and the flesh 
of the fish was firm and hard. When the last 
of the cooked fish had been eaten, Harry 
stretched off lazily in a patch of shade. 

“I wouldn’t change places with the Presi- 
dent,” he sighed. 

Perry nodded. Bob laughed. “The Presi- 
dent has no rival submarine,” he reminded 
them, “giving him trouble.” 

“We’ll get no more trouble from Danny,” 
Harry grinned. “I guess he knows when he’s 
163 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


had enough. We’ll be signing a peace treaty 
next.” 

Bob shook his head. “You don’t know 
Danny,” he said. “He isn’t the kind to give 
up.” 

But Harry refused to worry. Perry, how- 
ever, insisted that it was the part of prudence 
to keep the camera working each day. 

That night they stationed no watch. Some- 
time after midnight they encountered their 
first summer storm. The crashing of the thun- 
der awakened them. Perry lighted the bicycle 
lamp and sent its rays out into the storm. The 
water of the Cove was lashing about wildly. 

“Did we drop the trap on the Gray Whale?” 
he demanded anxiously. “She’ll be flooded if 
the hatch is open.” 

“The trap is closed,” said Bob. 

They stood at the window and watched the 
storm. The lamp blew out. The lightning 
flashes showed them nature at its worst. The 
marsh reeds were bent to the water. Suddenly 
164 


WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED 


came a flash brighter than the others. The 
thunder roared. They fled from the window. 

“That hit something near here,” Perry 
gasped. 

In truth, they were all pretty well scared. 
The wind increased in violence, and the shack, 
rudely built as it was, began to rock. 

“Will this thing go into the Cove?” Perry 
demanded. 

That same question had sent a grip of fear 
over Harry and Bob. The captain, though, 
answered with an effort at fearlessness: 

“Of course not. This is just a summer storm. 
This isn’t a cyclone.” 

“I don’t know about that,” Perry answered 
uneasily. “I wish I was home.” 

A broken tree branch, flying through the air, 
crashed into their window and shattered the 
glass. Harry bounded to his feet. 

“What’s that?” he gasped. 

Then the rain came driving through the 
open window. They retreated to a corner. 
i6s 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


There, for more than an hour, they huddled 
together and spoke in frightened whispers. 

Gradually the storm died away. The thun- 
der sounded off in the distance. The lightning 
flashes became fainter. And at last the uproar 
ceased. Harry struck a match and looked 
at his watch. 

“Half-past three o’clock,” he said. “It will 
be daylight in an hour.” 

Sleep was impossible, for the floor was 
thoroughly rain soaked. Like so many ship- 
wrecked sailors, they waited for the dawn. It 
came at last, calm, and peaceful, and warm, 
with the sky showing a bright, smiling face. 

“Huh!” said Harry. “I knew we’d be all 
right.” 

“You were as frightened as any of us,” Perry 
cried indignantly. 

Harry grunted, and went out and searched 
for dry fire wood. He found none. 

“We’ll have to go down the Creek for break- 
fast,” he said. 


i66 


WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED 


They were glad to go, for the shack had a 
wet, bedraggled appearance. Anyhow, their 
fathers and mothers would probably be anx- 
ious about them. They tied the Gray Whale 
at the Hinkelstedt float, went across the Creek 
in their punts, and scampered to their homes 
to tell that they were all safe from the storm. 

Two hours later they were back at the Cove. 
The sun had dried everything, and the shack 
looked fresh and clean. Mr. Hinkelstedt had 
told them that the storm had brought a mass of 
logs down the Big Giant, and that the river v/as 
actually dangerous. 

Now, the better to get an idea of how the 
river looked, they sent up the camera. An 
hour later Perry had his plate developed. He 
took a print and they examined it. 

The river was full of what looked like match 
sticks. But the boys knew' that each of these 
sticks represented a stout, rugged log. Here 
and there the sticks seemed broken. Perry 
pointed to two places. 

167 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP, 


“That’s foam breaking over the logs,” he 
said. “The Big Giant’s been swollen by the 
rain. She’s a pretty wild river to-day.” 

“Nice river for a canoe, eh?” Harry 
laughed. 

“I’ll bet Clara Dugan wouldn’t be afraid 
to take a canoe into that river,” said Perry. 

They had dinner from what remained of 
the catfish. While Harry washed the dishes. 
Perry sent up the kite. When he brought in 
the camera he made a leisurely trip to the 
dark room. 

“I wish one of you chaps would learn to 
develop,” he grumbled. 

Harry dropped the dishes. “Teach me,” he 
invited eagerly. 

“Come along,” said Perry. 

They skipped into the shack, Harry calling 
a gleeful order to Bob to clean up tbe dishes. 

Almost an hour later Harry bounded from 
the shack. Perry was only a step behind him. 

“Bob!” Harry cried. “There’s something 
1 68 


WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED 


funny about this plate. There’s an upset boat 
or something in the river.” 

“What kind of boat?” Bob demanded. 
“The Little Giantr 

“We don’t know. Perry saw it first. Perry I 
Where are you — Oh!” 

For Perry was fixing paper to take a print. 

The three of them leaned over the frame as 
the sunlight shone full on the plate. A few 
minutes later Perry took a quick glance at the 
print. 

“A little longer,” he said. 

Two minutes later he took the print out. 
They studied it through the magnifying glass. 

“That’s an upset boat,” said Bob. “See, she 
was upset by the logs. See them all around 
her? And look at that jam at the Creek.” 

“Is it the Little Giant?" Harry demanded. 

“No,” said Bob in a puzzled tone. “It isn’t 
Danny Dugan’s boat. What is it. Perry?” 

Perry turned the print from side to side. 
“It’s a canoe,” he said. 

169 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


At that Harry grabbed the print and the 
glass. Bob jumped to his side. 

“Is it — ” he began. 

“It is,” Harry shouted. “It’s Clara Du- 
gan’s boat. But where’s Clara?” 

“She must have been pulled out,” said Bob. 
“She couldn’t have been,” Harry cried. 
“They’d have pulled out her canoe, too. 
She’s been upset. She couldn’t swim back to 
the Creek through those logs at the jam. The 
Big Giant current’s at its worst now.” 

“Then she’s probably holding to a log and 
being swept out to the bay,” groaned Perry. 

“And that picture was taken an hour ago.” 
Bob jumped toward the landing where they 
had the punts. “What are we waiting here 
for? Come on.” 

The chums tumbled into one of the punts. 
They rowed furiously out to where the Gray 
Whale was moored. They clambered aboard. 
Even before the anchor was up Harry had 
started the engine. The boat took head- 


170 


WHAT THE CAMERA SHOWED 


way slowly and moved out through the 
inlet. 

“The tide’s with us,” said Perry. 

“And she’s been drifting an hour with the 
tide,” said Bob, and groaned. “Light the 
lamp. Perry. We’ll need it when we hit the 
River.” 

Perry brought out the lamp. 

“Haul in those ventilators,” Bob ordered as 
they turned the Bend. “We must get under 
that log jam.” 

Harry grunted and panted as he pulled the 
ventilators down. He screwed the caps on 
the ends so that the water would not come in 
on them. 

“It’s lucky we thought of this,” he gasped. 

They came down the Creek with the set- 
ting sun shining in through the lookout win- 
dow. Had Danny been on the float they 
would have called to him. But the Dugan 
float was deserted. Then, almost directly 
ahead, they saw the beginning of the log jam. 

171 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“Sink her,” said Bob. 

Perry pulled the lever and filled the tank. 
Slowly the Gray Whale sank and went under 
the logs. When next they came to the sur- 
face they would be out on Big Giant River. 
They had given a pledge that they would 
keep out of the Big Giant, but now with res- 
cue work before them, none of them gave the 
promise a thought. Their minds were on the 
girl who was being swept out to the deep, 
dark waters of the bay. 


CHAPTER XI 

THE RESCUE 

T hey thought, after the Gray Whale 
had sunk, that they would hear the 
grind of the logs. Instead, no sound 
came down to them. They were in an air- 
tight vault, in a little world all their own. 
Everything was shut out. Above them was 
danger. They could not hear it, they could 
not see it, but they knew that it was there. 
Shortly a new problem presented itself. 4 
“How will we know when we are in the 
River?” Perry asked. 

“We can’t know,” Harry answered. “We 
must come up and take a chance.” 

“No,” said Bob. “When we hit the River 
173 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


the current will catch us on our beam. We’ll 
feel it. We’ll know.” 

So they stood tensely in the hold and 
fwaited. After what seemed a long time 
Harry said that they must surely be in the 
River. 

“Wait,” Bob ordered. 

Soon they felt the Gray Whale stagger and 
wobble. 

“That’s the River current,” Perry cried. 

Slowly they brought the Gray Whale up. 
They stopped her near the surface. Bob, 
from the lookout, could see long black shad- 
ows on the water above. He knew that these 
were logs. 

“Stop the engine,” he ordered. 

Harry obeyed. Bob let the boat drift with 
the current. A few minutes later an open 
spot appeared directly ahead. 

“Pump,” he ordered. “Speed, Harry.” 

The Gray Whale moved forward and up- 
ward. She came to the surface safely. They 


174 


THE RESCUE 


threw back the trap, ran out the ventilators, 
and prepared to race down the River. 

The sun was disappearing. The west bank 
of the river already showed brooding shadows. 
The surly current bobbed the Gray Whale as 
though she were a heavy, cumbersome cork. 

“Is there any chance of being upset?” 
Perry demanded. 

“Not a chance,” said Bob. “But we’ll have 
some rough spots.” 

All around them were logs. The Gray 
Whale, however, moved faster than any of 
these forest giants. The logs had only the 
current to speed them; the boat had both the 
current and her propeller. At that, though, 
she did not move as fast as Bob wished. 

“Couldn’t Perry and I take an oar,” Harry 
asked, “and work from the hatch?” 

“Every bit of power helps,” said Bob. 
“Hurry, fellows.” 

Each boy put over an oar and worked it 
with long, powerful sweeps. The speed of 


I7S 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


the Gray Whale increased a little — not much, 
but a little. 

“We must go faster than this,” Bob cried. 
“Clara has had an hour’s start.” 

“We’re not getting the full current,” Harry 
guessed. “Shift her. Bob. Keep moving 
about until we reach the strongest part of 
the channel.” 

Five minutes later they felt the water grip 
them and begin to sweep them ahead. 

“That’s it,” Harry cried. “We’ll get there 
now. See, we’re leaving those logs behind as 
though they were tied.” 

Slowly the night came on. While the day- 
light lasted, Harry stood in the trap and used 
the glasses and searched the River, but failed 
to sight the girl they sought. When at last 
the night closed over them, they were three 
miles from the Creek. 

“Light the lamp,” said Bob. 

On through the darkness went the Gray 
Whale, with the rays of the lamp swinging 
176 


THE RESCUE 


back and forth across the blackened waters. 

As long as the day had lasted, the boys had 
not voiced any real alarm. Now, though, 
their tones changed. Harry’s voice became a 
hoarse murmur. Perry’s tightened like wire 
heavily drawn. Bob spoke in worried, har- 
assed sentences. 

“Maybe the log she was holding to got into 
a shore eddy,” said Harry. 

“Give the shore plenty of light,” said Bob. 
“Where can she be? Why did she go on that 
river in a canoe?” 

Twice, in the next ten minutes, the light 
showed logs gathered near the bank. Each 
time Harry made a trumpet of his hands and 
called: “Cla-ra Du-gan! Cla-ra Du-ganl” 
The echo of his voice came back to them, but 
that was all. 

“Keep trying the shores,” Bob ordered 
wearily. 

Logs bumped them and rasped them, but 
they now paid no attention to the danger. 


177 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


The light saved them from ramming anything 
directly in front. What they did hit they 
caught on the sides with glancing blows. 
Several times the Gray Whale was jarred; 
but not for a moment did she pause in her 
drive down the river. 

After a while the stream widened. Now 
came a new danger. If they remained in the 
channel the light from the lamp would 
scarcely reach the shores. Suppose the girl 
was caught some place there? They would 
surely miss her. 

“If we go from side to side,” Bob protested, 
“we’re going to lose the current. We’ll have 
to stay in the center and take chances.” 

“We can stop the engine every few min- 
utes,” Perry suggested, “and shout and listen. 
How would that work?” 

“It’s the best we can do,” Bob groaned. 

Perry climbed up and sat on the trap with 
his feet dangling inside. Every time Harry 
stopped the engine he raised his voice: 

178 


THE RESCUE 


“Cla-ra Du-gan! Cla-ra Du-gan!” 

Only the echo came to them out of the 
blackness of the night. 

Presently they passed under the dark arches 
of a railroad bridge. Perry hailed the 
bridgeman’s tower: 

“Bridge ahoy! Bridge ahoy!” 

From the bridge came a man’s voice: 
“What’s wrong?” 

“Did a girl drift this way clinging to a 
log?” 

“No. Who are you? Who are you look- 
ing for?” 

Instead of answering, Perry dropped into 
the hold. 

“She can’t be much ahead of us,” he cried. 
“The bridgemen didn’t see her. They 
couldn’t have missed seeing her if she had 
passed in daylight. And if it had been light, 
Clara would have got away from that log 
and onto the bridge piles. Maybe she was 
afraid to take a chance in the darkness. She 


179 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


can’t be so far ahead now, and our boat’s 
going faster than the logs.” 

His words put hope into Bob and Harry. 
Somehow, the Gray Whale seemed to bright- 
en. The light cut back and forth across the 
water with more confidence. 

But at the end of fifteen minutes they began 
to feel a deep despair. The River was be- 
coming wider all the time. The stretch of 
water was so large — and the light of the lamp 
was so small. 

“We can’t give up,” cried Bob. 

“But we’re almost five miles from the 
Creek,” Harry gulped. “We’ll never find 
her.” 

“Call,” Bob urged. “Call for her.” 

Once more Perry climbed up and sat on 
the trap. His voice carried across the cold, 
forbidding River: 

“Cla-ra Du-gan! Cla-ra Du-gan!” 

“No use,” Harry groaned. 

“Keep calling,” Bob ordered grimly. He 
i8o 


THE RESCUE 


was beginning to feel that they had made a 
mistake. They should have stopped a mo- 
ment to arouse the Dugans and Mr. Hinkel- 
stedt. Well, it couldn’t be helped now. They 
had come out for her, and they would keep 
on until they reached the bay. Then they 
would turn back — but not before. 

The River was growing rougher. There 
was a lashing chop to the water. Yet the 
Gray Whale went on and on until, ahead in 
the distance, they saw clusters of lights. 

“The bay,” sighed Harry. “Are we going 
any farther. Bob?” 

Bob did not answer. But he ordered the 
engines stopped, and that was enough. They 
let the Gray Whale drift, as though they were 
reluctant to turn her about. Presently Harry 
pushed Bob aside and took the wheel. 

“We must go back. Bob,” he said gently. 

“All right,” the leader answered miserably. 
“I’ll steer her, Harry. Give me the wheel. 
Start your engine.” 

i8i 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Harry went aft, stumbling on his way as 
though he could not see. His hand was reach- 
ing out to start the motor when Perry’s voice 
broke shrilly: 

“I hear something. What’s that?” 

Harry stiffened. An instant later his head 
was up through the trap. He and Perry stood 
together scarcely daring to breath. And 
faintly, from across the water, came a sound. 

“Hear it?” Perry demanded. “What is it?” 

Harry jumped down to the engine. “I 
don’t know. It’s east, whatever it is. Steer 
that way. Bob.” He started the motor. 

“It’s west,” cried Perry; “west, I tell you.” 

For several minutes the Gray Whale kicked 
its way toward the east shore. Then the en- 
gine was stopped. They listened. No sound 
save the lapping of the water. 

“I told you it was west,” cried Perry. 

They turned the boat’s nose the other way. 
Five minutes later they halted again and lis- 
tened. Stronger, now, came the sound. It 
182 


THE RESCUE 


did not sound like a voice; neither did it 
sound like anything they had ever heard. 
They had come too far, however, to go back 
now that a human being might be calling 
them. 

“Engine!” cried Bob. “Make her work, 
Harry.” 

Harry started the motor again. This time 
they moved forward a longer space of time. 

“Stop,” Bob cried. 

This time the sound came to them almost 
plainly. Their hearts jumped. They recog- 
nized it now. It was a woman’s voice crying 
for aid. 

“Over that way,” Harry directed. 

Perry swung the lamp’s ray. The motor 
started again. Forward went the Gray 
Whale. 

A log appeared in the path of the light. 
There seemed to be a spot on the log, a spot 
that moved. 

“It’s her,” Perry cried wildly. “There 
183 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


where I have the light, Bob. See it? Steer 
for that. I’ll keep the light on it. Steer for 
it, Bob.” 

The leader needed no urging. Now and 
then the log floated away from the lamp’s ray, 
but always the light found it again. The spot 
grew larger. It seemed to become slim and 
long, and to stretch up out of the black water. 

“She’s waving to us,” cried Perry. “May- 
be she thinks we don’t see her.” He lifted 
his voice: “We’re coming; we’re coming.” 

The waving stopped. 

Slowly they came down upon the log. 
There could be no doubt now that it was 
Clara Dugan. They could dimly see her 
face. Her hair was floating in the water. 

“She’s tiring,” called Perry. “One of her 
arms just slipped.” 

Harry bobbed out of the hold and up be- 
side him. “Where?” he demanded. He stud- 
ied the girl. Suddenly he dived from the 
boat. They saw him come to the surface and 
184 


THE RESCUE 


swim toward the log, “I’ll help her hold on,” 
he called back. 

He reached the girl only a minute ahead 
of the boat, but that minute was precious, 
for her strength was gone. She slipped from 
her hold as he got to her. He gripped the 
floating hair and dragged her in so that he 
could clasp one arm. Then the Gray Whale 
loomed alongside him. 

The rudder and the engine were left to do 
as they pleased. Bob and Perry pulled Clara 
Dugan aboard. Harry scrambled after her. 

“Is she all right?” Perry demanded anx- 
iously. 

“She’s breathing, isn’t she?” Harry de- 
manded. “Well, that’s all we need to know. 
There! Hear her sigh? She’ll be cold from 
being in the water so long. Where’s that lit- 
tle blanket we used when the nights were cool 
— that one for the fellow who stands guard?” 

Perry dragged the blanket from some place 
up forward. They wrapped it about the girl. 
185 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Later, when she regained consciousness, Perry 
told her that she was all right and not to 
worry. The Gray Whale, manfully bucking 
the tide, was past the railroad bridge before 
she spoke. 

“My canoe upset,” she said. “I was caught 
among the logs. I couldn’t swim ashore. 
And by the time my log was free and clear, 
the current was too strong for me. I had to 
hold on and let it carry me.” 

“Did you see us coming?” Harry asked. 

“I saw your light. I knew it was the Gray 
Whale. Danny had told me about the light 
you flashed on him at the Cove. I saw you 
coming all the while. When you turned 
around to go back my heart went down into 
my toes.” 

“That’s just when Perry heard your voice,” 
said Bob. 

The girl smiled feebly. “Then I’ll be 
grateful to Perry all my life — to all of you. 
I guess if it wasn’t for you I’d be — be ” 

i86 


THE RESCUE 


“Shucks!” said Bob. “We only sailed the 
Gray Whale down the River.” 

“I know,” the girl answered. “I know 
what you did.” 

Slowly the submarine made headway. Bob 
had to keep a watchful eye, for now he was 
running against the oncoming logs. 

“How did you know I was drifting?” the 
girl asked after a silence. 

Harry explained about the kite and the 
camera. Clara Dugan smiled. 

“And Danny thought he could get the best 
of you,” she murmured. 

“Well,” said Harry, “Danny worked a 
pretty good game on us with that gong bell.” 

“I thought of that,” the girl said guiltily. 
Bob laughed, and next they were all laugh- 
ing. 

The trip back, though tedious and filled 
with the danger of going into a log head on, 
was far more joyful than the trip down had 
been. Despite the fact that the girl shivered 
187 


GRAY! WHALE— WARSHIP 


a bit, even though blanket-wrapped, they 
were a merry crew. 

Two miles from the Creek they saw a light 
on the water. 

‘What’s that?” Perry asked. 

“That’s Danny,” said Clara suddenly. 
“His lantern has a rim of red around the 
center of the glass.” 

“I can see the red,” Harry called. “Steer 
for it. Bob.” 

The Gray Whale bore down toward the 
light. At length, from ahead, came Danny’s 
voice anxiously: 

“That the Gray Whale?'* 

Harry made a trumpet of his hands. “We 
have Clara.” 

They heard a cheer from the light. Soon 
a rowboat was alongside. In it was Danny, 
Farrant and Davis. Clara related with 
much satisfaction how the Gray Whale had 
searched for her and had found her. 

“We didn’t miss you until the jam at the 

i88 


THE RESCUE 


Creek broke up,” Danny exclaimed. “Then 
we found the canoe. Father and some men 
are searching up there, thinking that perhaps 
— perhaps — Oh, sis, I’m glad you’re safe.” 

There wasn’t much of the fighting Danny 
in sight just then. He wanted to take his sis- 
ter into the rowboat, but Bob pointed out that 
she was chilled, and that sitting in the hold of 
the Gray Whale she would be protected from 
the night breeze. Besides, it would be hard 
work to buck the current with the rowboat 
with four persons in it. So the submarine 
kept on her way, and the rowboat kept along- 
side. Over and over Danny kept telling his 
sister how glad he was that she was safe. 

They came to the Creek at last. There was 
a lot of shouting and Danny managed to make 
the searchers there realize that his sister was 
safe. Then came more shouts and cheers. 
The Gray Whale proceeded to the Dugan 
float as though she were a victorious battle- 
ship. 


189 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


Tender hands helped the girl from the 
Gray Whale to the float. They hurried her 
indoors. 

“All right,” Bob called to those who held 
the Gray Whale against the float. “Let 
her go.” 

They did not let her go — not for a full min- 
ute, anyway. And in that minute Danny 
Dugan leaned across the trap and clutched 
Bob’s hand. 

“I won’t forget this,” he said huskily. 

Then the Gray Whale was free. She 
drifted out with the tide. Harry started the 
engine. The submarine, her mission of res- 
cue accomplished, moved upstream toward 
Mr. Hinkelstedt’s float. 

“Fellows,” said Harry, “I have a pretty 
good hunch that the Little Giant Creek war 
is about over.” 


CHAPTER XII 


THE FLEET ORGANIZES 

T he chums did not bother to guard 
the submarine that night. They felt 
that they could have left it outside 
the Dugan float and that Danny would not 
have bothered it. 

They told Mr. Hinkelstedt the story of what 
had happened. He rubbed his wrinkled 
cheeks, and stared at them solemnly, and at 
length announced that he was proud of them. 

After that they rowed across the Creek and 
went to their homes. Their week of camping 
still had a day to run, but they wanted to re- 
port that they had broken their promise and 
had gone into Big Giant River. 

191 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“Not that we’ll be scolded,” said Bob. 
“We won’t. But we’ll have to report it, 
anyway.” 

Bob was right. They were not scolded. 
Three proud mothers and three proud fathers 
secretly thought that their sons were heroes. 
The sons themselves thought that it had been 
a bully adventure and nothing more. 

“Though,” Perry said reflectively, “I 
wouldn’t want to go through it again. The 
Big Giant is too savage at night.” 

Next morning the boys went to the Hinkel- 
stedt float. They found the old builder paint- 
ing the Gray Whale’s flag staffs and her ven- 
tilators. 

“She is a good boat,” he said. “She did 
some good services. So I gives her a rewards 
with some paint.” 

The chums sat around and watched him 
complete his labors. Toward noon a punt 
came through the railroad bridge boatway. 

“Here’s Danny Dugan,” Perry called. 


192 


THE FLEET ORGANIZES 


Danny sat in the bow of the punt with a 
flag of truce. Farrant and Davis pulled the 
oars. She came alongside the float. Danny 
leaped aboard. Farrant threw a rope to 
Harry. Then the crew followed their 
captain. 

Danny didn’t make bows and stiff speeches 
now. “Hello,” he said awkwardly. 

“Hello,” Bob answered. “How’s Clara?” 

“She’s all right. She says you fellows just 
about saved her from drowning.” 

“We only pulled her out of the water,” said 
Harry. “That wasn’t much.” 

Danny swallowed hard. “Well, we think 
it was a whole lot. How — how about drop- 
ping this war, eh?” 

Perry gave a jump of joy. “I’m willing,” 
he cried. 

Bob nodded. “So am I.” 

At that Danny became bolder. “Say, 
couldn’t we get the two boats together? Sort 
of make a fleet?” 


193 


GRAY WHALE— WARSHIP 


“There’d have to be a leader,” Harry said 
slowly. 

“Bob — Bob could be leader,” Danny said 
weakly. 

“That would make the leader’s ship the 
flagship,” Harry insisted. 

“Sure,” Danny agreed. 

“And that would make Bob admiral, 
wouldn’t it?” 

Danny swallowed hard once more. “I — I 
guess Bob deserves it,” he said. 

Perry gave a cheer and slapped Farrant on 
the back. Farrant grinned and said that he’d 
like to see anybody get fresh with their fleet. 

“We’ll use Shelter Cove as a navy yard for 
the fleet,” Harry announced. “Won’t we. 
Bob?” 

“You just bet we will,” Bob laughed. 

“And Monday — The paint will be dry 
by Monday, won’t it, Mr. Hinkelstedt? 
Well, Monday the Gray Whale and the Lit- 
tle Giant will dress ship, fly all their flags. 


194 


THE FLEET ORGANIZES 


We’ll sail up the Creek, and through the in- 
let, and into the Cove. And we’ll celebrate 
with a bang-up meal that we’ll cook our- 
selves.” 

“Crabs,” cried Farrant. 

“And catfish,” echoed Perry. 

Danny Dugan smacked his lips. “Say, this 
fleet will have some great times, won’t it?” 

So, sitting there on Mr. Hinkelstedt’s float, 
they ended the war and planned what new 
adventures would come to them as they sailed 
under one flag. 

(0 

THE END 








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